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GUIDE TO BOSTON 

. AND VICINITY, 



MAPS AND ENGRAVINGS. 



By DAVID PULSIFER. 









BOSTON : 


A.. 


WILLIAMS & COMFANY. 




186 7. 



?^U.ul/. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

DAVID PULSIFEE. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 






Stereotyped by C. J. Peters & Son, 
13 Washington Street, Boston. 



NOTICES. 



[From the Boston Congregationalist.] 

Mr. Pulsifer, one of our most eminent Boston antiquaries, 
has just favored the public with a new Guide to this city and 
vicinity, which is just the thing to put into the hands of the 
stranger who wants to know how to get where he likes to go, 
and how to find what he wishes to see of special interest here. 
While it is sufficiently full on all points, it is less fulsome and 
commendatory in the matter of theatres and similar places, than 
such books are apt to be, while all wholesome resorts are care- 
fully pointed out. It is the good work of a good man. 



[From The Commonwealth.] 

David Pulsifer, the well-known author and antiquarian, 
has recently published a new edition of his " Guide to Boston 
and Vicinity," illustrated with maps and engravings, which has 
many features of excellence. Any stranger, or curiosity -hunter, 
can hardly do better than look over . this volume for much 
material of interest and value. 

There is enough within the covers of the volume to amaze 
the visitor and gratify the in-dweller. Ffir curious lore few 
men surpass Mr. Pulsifer ; and he has put a great deal that 
he knows in this book, which A. Williams & Co. will sell you 
for a reasonable sum. 



2 NOTICES. 

[Prom the Salem Register.] 

Pulsipek's Guide to Boston and Vicinity. David 
Pulsifer, Esq., tlie learned and accurate antiquarian, to whose 
labors the delvers in the archives of the Commonwealth, and 
historical students generally, are so much indebted, has recently 
issued a new and much improved edition of his interesting and 
valuable " Guide to Boston and Vicinity," with maps and en- 
gravings. The stranger in the metropolis will find many things 
described in this volume which would be likely to escape his 
notice without some such guide, and much historical information 
of great value as well as interest. Boston abounds in memor- 
able relics of the past, as well as in attractive institutions of the 
present, and justice is done to both in Mr. P's little book. The 
descriptions are not confined to the city proper, but extend to 
the suburbs, which contain many memorable spots and places of 
interest worthy of the attention of the stranger who has time to 
visit them. A fine map of Boston, and another of the region 
within a circuit of fifteen or twenty miles, accompany the 
volume ; and among the numerous illustrations are several 
engravings of historical value, having reference to relics of the 
past, some of which, like that of the famous Hancock House, 
have already disappeared before the march of improvement. 
We commend this volume to the notice of all who would 
learn how much there is to interest the visitor in and around 
Boston; and we have no doubt that there are many Bostonians 
even who could learn from this Guide much more than they 
now know about their own city. It makes a volume of nearly 
300 pages, is neatly printed and bound, and is published by 
A. Williams & Co. 



[From the Lowell Daily Citizen and News.] 

"Pulsifer's Guide to Boston and Vicinity" is the 
title of a neat little volume just published by A. Williams & Co., 



NOTICES. O 

of Boston, from the pen of that unwearied " Antiquary," David 
Pulsifer, Esq., the " Mr. Oldbuck " of the State house, of whom 
it may be said as of the " Laird of Monkbarns," that 

, " he would rather have, at his bed-head 

A twenty books, clothed ia black or red. 
Of Aristotle, or his philosophy. 
Than robes rich, rebeck, or saltery." 

The volume is adorned with numerous engravings of public 
buildings, contains valuable maps of the city and its vicinity, 
and is full of Information. Occasionally, the antiquarian lore 
of the author cropping out, adds a charm to his clear narrative 
of recent events and accurate descriptions of modern improve- 
ments. 

As the work was elaborated under the shade of the Hub of 
the Commomveal, we heartily commend it to those members of 
the General Court, and to all others, who. have not had an op- 
portunity to contemplate and watch the changes which have 
within a few years come over the features of the metropolis. 



[From the Cambridge Chi-onicle.] 

Guide to Boston and Vicinity, with maps and engrav- 
ings. By David Pulsifer. Boston : A. Williams & Co. 1866. 

Were Mr. Pulsifer, like some of his profession, a little more 
indurated by authorship, we should incline to introduce our brief 
remarks upon his present work with comj^limentary reference to 
his other publications. Suffice it to say that the State has few 
antiquarians, to whom the public is more indebted for the fidelity 
and zeal with which, in paths unattractive to more ambitious 
minds, the lore of native history has been investigated. In the 
little volume before us, with its rich contributions of modern 
architectural views, landscapes, and monuments, we are not 



4 NOTICES. 

slightly gratified to discern the old antiquarian spirit in the piC' 
torial preservation of some of the early landmarks of Boston, 
most of which exist now only among the records of the past. 

When we say that Mr. Pulsifer's book represents Boston, as it 
is, and, perhaps, for the last time, in many interesting lights, 
Boston as it was, sufficient inducement to own a copy will natur- 
ally be felt by all who indulge in a becoming pride in the me- 
tropolis of New England, and can afford to spend an odd dollar 
or so in the literature of her world-renowned localities. 

Besides the full description of Boston within its present limits, 
notices of the adjoining cities, with their memorable places, ever 
attractive to the stranger, are here given with ample particu- 
larity. The maps, plans, fac-similes of the curious Memorial 
Tablets of the Washington Family, together with eighty-two 
other illustrative engravings, and nearly three hundred pages of 
letter press, make it one of the cheapest books out. Every 
family would find it for its benefit to keep a copy for the use of 
that large and interesting class of society, " our country cousins," 
when they do us the honor to " come down " upon us. 



PREFACE, 



In submitting to the public a new edition 
of the Guide to Boston, it is proper to state, 
that free use has been made of material in 
Mr. R. L. Midgley's valuable work (the copy- 
right of which has been purchased) ; that 
portions of this material have been entirely 
remodeled, and large additions have been 
made from the most authentic sources. 

To many friends who have kindly assisted 
in furnishing information and illustrations for 
this work, the undersigned tenders his grate- 
ful acknowledgments. 

D. P. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Ancient Boston • 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Faneuil Hall. — Faneuil-Hall Makket. — Custom House.— 
Exchange.— Old State House 7 

CHAPTER III. 
Old South Chuech.— Birthplace of Franklin. — City Hall. 
— Court House. — Stone Chapel.— Cemetery. ....... 21 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Boston Museum. —Historical Society 36 

CHAPTER V. 
Boston Athenaeum. — Club Houses 40 

CHAPTER VI. 

Tremont Temple.— Meionaon. — Park-Street Church. — The 
Granary Cemetery. — Music Hall. — United-States Court 
House.— Masonic Temple 48 

CHAPTER VII. 
The State House. — Hancock House. — Boston Water- Works 63 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
BosTOK Common.— Old Elm. — Frog Pond 72 

CHAPTER IX. 
Public Gakden.— Providence Depot.— Public Librakt ... 85 

CHAPTER X. 
Worcester Depot and Road.— OLO-CoLONYaND Fall-River 
Depot and Road 90 

CHAPTER XL 
Boston Theatre.— Melodeon 98 



CHAPTER XII. 
Mercantile Library Association.— Lowell Institute.— Op- 
era House.— Brattle-Street Church.— Bowdoin Square 103 

CHAPTER XIIL 

Lowell Depot. — Eastern Railroad Depot. — Pitchburg De- 
• pot. — Copp's Hill —Maine Depot 110 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Massachusetts Medical College. — Massachusetts Gen- 
eral Hospital. — Warren Museum of Natural History. 
— M'Lean Insane Asylum. — City Jail. — Eye and Ear In- 
firmary 117 

CHAPTER XV. 
Back Bay 127 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Charles-River Basin and South Bay 138 



CONTENTS. VU 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Museum of the Boston Society of Natural Histoet. 
— Technological Institute 141 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Education.— Newspapers H5 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Young Men's Christian Association.— American Congrega- 
tional Association. — The General Theological Library 149 

CHAPTER XX. 

Mount- Vernon Church. — Missionary House, — Massachu- 
setts Sabbath-School Society.— New-England Metho- 
dist Depository. — American Tract Society.— American 
Tract Society, New-England Branch.— Massachusetts 
Bible Society 154 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Horticultural Building.— Great Organ ; 166 

CHAPTER XXII. 
New-England Historic-Genealogical Society. — Sons of 
Temperance.- Washingtonian Home. — Home for Little 
Wanderers 171 

CHAPTER XXIU. 
Boston Hotels.— Charities. — Fire Telegraph 180 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Cambridge. — Old Fortifications. — Harvard Institute, 
Gore Hall, Washington House, Riedesel House, Wash- 
ington Elm.— Mount Auburn 197 



via CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXV. 
BcNKER Hill. — Monument. —Statue of Gen. Warren. —Na- 
vy Yard. — State Prison.- Harvard Monument 220 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
WoODLAWN Cemetery.— Rock Tower. — Netherwood Pond. 
— Chelsea 234 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Concord. — Lexington. — Dorchester Heights. — Perkins In- 
stitution FOR THE Blind 239 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Nahant 249 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Boston Harbor. — Islands. — Farm School. — Alms-House. — 
Fort Independence. — Fort Winthrop 260 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Blackstone Square. — Franklin Square. — Forest- Hills 
Cemetery 269 

Addenda . 285 



CHAPTER I. 

ANCIENT BOSTON. 




BOSTON was settled by Gov. Winthrop and his asso- 
ciates, in 1630, and received its name in honor of 
the Rev, John Cotton, who emigrated from Boston, in 
Lincolnshire, England. Its original Indian name was 
Shawraut. 

This little book is intended to be a guide to the princi- 
pal objects of interest in the City of Notions; therefore 
we shall not enter into any details respecting tho rise 
and progress of Boston. If you know nothing of that. 



2 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

but are desirous of such information, procure Drake's 
History, published at number 13 Bromfield-street, and in 
it you will find all you require. 

We will, then, suppose you have arrived in Boston, and 
that, having located yourself at one of its many spacious 
hotels, you have commenced your tour of the city. It is 
always well to have some defined point to start from, and 
therefore we will select Dock-square as the scene of our 
first exploration. 

Dock-square. — It is not a square now, in the literal 
acceptation of the word, though possibly " once upon a 
time " it was. Very long ago grass might have grown 
there, and trees flourished, and birds sung, and no dock 
ever have been dreamed of. Only a prowling Indian, 
in search of a squaw or a scalp, might have been seen in 
the vicinity, and all excitement have been confined to a 
palaver around the council-fire. But a truce to the past ; 
it is Dock-square, and nothing else, now. 

In lieu of groves or glades, we have a busy, open 
space, with labyrinthine thoroughfares leading into and out 
of it. Bustling, -anxious-faced men are to be seen there 
at all hours of the day, rushing hither and thither, intent 
on dollars and dimes. House and hotel keepers pay 
flying visits to the market close by ; visitors from all parts 
of the States look curiously at the " Cradle of Liberty ; " 
omnibuses rush along, distracting perilled pedestrians ; 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



3 



market-carts, laden with country produce, stand sur- 
rounded by dealers, and everything is full of life and 
animation. Looking calmly down upon and over- 
shadowing this scene of commercial activity, is a huge 
structure, Faneuil Hall, of which we shall presently speak. 
At present, let us direct our glance to a specimen of archi- 
tecture of the early days of Boston. The old building 
here represented stood on the corner of North and Market 




Streets until 1860. It was built in the year 1680, soon 
after the great fire of 1679 ; but the giant Progress, in his 
march of improvement, has trodden down this ancient 
dwelling. Others, however, of equal or greater age, may 



4 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



still be seen. That at the corner of Dock Square and Fa- 
neuil-hall Square, formerly occupied by George Murdock 
and A. A. Wellington, is of the number. Here, on the 
last day of May, 1813, the lamented Augustus C. Ludlow, 
first lieutenant of the frigate Chesapeake, called and drew 
a check for stores sent on board, remarldng at the time to 
a fellow-officer, as a reason for settling tlie account then, 
" The Shannon is in the bay, and God knows where we 
shall be to-morrow. " This building, now over two hun- 
dred years old, may remain for years to come. 

Dr. J. V. C. Smith, in his " Ancient and Modern 
Boston," published in the Boston Almanac for 1853, says : 
' There are reminiscences connected with the growth of 
Boston that deserve to be kept in remembrance. For 
example, where the Maine Station House, in Haymarket- 
square, stands, there was an open canal but a few years 
ago, and the line of the track is o^ er the course of it to 
the water. Where Causeway-street is, there was formerly 
a wall from Lowell-street, running north-easterly to rear 
of Charlestown old bridge, called the Causeway, making a 
pond of many acres, between Prince and Pitts streets. 
Many aged persons are in the habit of calling all that 
region between Merrimac and Prince streets, to this day, 
the Mill Pond. A remnant of the last tide-mill is still 
believed to exist on the east side of Charlestown-street, in 
the form of a stable. All of that large tract of land 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 5 

known technically as the South Cove was actually a body 
of water, covering an area of seventy-two acres, within 
the recollection of those not far removed from childhood. 
The Neck may truly be said to be nearly all artificial. 
Where the wide street runs to Rosbury, was a mere 
ridge, scarcely removed from the reach of high tides, at the 
period of the Revolution. By building the Boston and 
Roxbury Mill-dam, the whole of the back bay, between 
Washington-street and the wall, was reclaimed from 
Charles river and the ocean. 

" Whole streets have been detached from the domain of 
Neptune, as India, Broad, Commercial, Brighton, nearly 
the whole of Charles, Fayette, and several more that are 
now at considerable distance from the water. At East 
Boston very large additions to the territory have been 
made within a few years. All the wharves, by which 
Boston is nearly surrounded, are certainly artificial works, 
of immense cost, but esteemed excellent and productive 
property. It is not improbable that men are now living 
who remember to have seen the bowsprit of vessels pro- 
jecting into Liberty-square." 

Boston is styled the Athens of America. It should 
have been the State. In Boston the princely merchant's 
warehouse presents the appearance of a palace, massive 
and grand. His counting-room is a picture of opulence, 
spacious and beautiful ; his ware-rooms are crowded with 
1* 



6 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

the products of manufacture. Massive buildings of 
granite, all presenting the neatest and brightest appear- 
ance, everywhere meet the eye. Along the wharves 
immense ranges of warehouses extend the whole length, 
at which the finest ships are discharging their foreign 
cargoes. Again, encircling her " Common," rise in beau- 
teous outlines spacious mansions, having the appearance 
of palaces, and presenting a scene of quiet beauty, 
unsurpassed by anything in the world ; they are the 
residences of her merchant princes. The whole scene ia 
clothed in neatness, regularity, and good order ; there is a 
characteristic quietness about it which the people of Mas- 
sachusetts have made their own. Her public men are far- 
seeing, discreet, and dignified ; and when they move it is to 
some purpose. Her merchants are cautious, systematic in 
their business transactions, ready to advance in their 
proper time, and distinguished from that recklessness 
which marks the New Yorker. 




« CHAPTER II. 

FANEUIL HALL. — FANEUIL HALL JIARKET. CUSTOM 

HOUSE. EXCHANGE. — OLD STATE HOUSE. 




Faneuil Hall is often by Bostonians and others 
styled '■'•The Cradle of American Liberty" Not to Bos- 



fi BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

ton alone, but to the entire country, does it seem to 
belong ; for in the annals of America it holds a fore- 
most and most honorable position. Within its walls 
some of the finest specimens of American eloquence that 
have been heard from the days of Washington to those 
of Webster were delivered. When despotism threatened 
the colonies of George the Thu-d, the first tones of defi- 
ance were uttered in Faneuil Hall. Liberty held there 
her high court, and from thence issued decrees a thousand 
times more potent than a king's proclamation or a czar's 
ukase. What wonder, then, that from far and near come 
admiring visitors to it, or that Boston should be proud of 
its possession ? 

Years ago there lived in Boston a merchant whose 
name was Peter Faneuil. He it was who immortalized 
his name by the gift of the building to the town of Bos- 
ton, for a town hall and market place. It was the best 
monument to his memory that he could possibly have 
devised. Faneuil Hall is a large, many-windowed struc- 
ture, of no particular order of architecture, surmounted 
by a cupola. The great hall to which you ascend (for 
the lower story is still a market and is divided into 
stalls) is seventy-six feet square, and twenty-eight high ; 
round three sides runs a gallery, and Doric pillars sup- 
port the ceiling. At the west end are several paintings 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. » 

— one of Peter Faneuil in full length ; another of Wash- 
ington by Stuart ; Healey's picture of Webster making 
his celebrated speech in reply to Hayne. Portraits of 
Abraham Lincoln and John A. Andrew have recently 
been added. 

Over the great hall is another, where military equip- 
ments are kept; and there are also various offices for 
civic functionaries. 

Leaving Faneuil Hall at its eastern end, and crossing 




Merchants' Row, we arrive at the entrance of Faneuil 
Hall Market. It is raised on a base of blue Quincy 



10 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

granite, with arched windows and doors communicating 
with cellars. The length of the Market is five hundred 
and eighty-five feet nine inches, the width fifty feet, and 
built entirely of granite. In the centre is a building 
seventy-four and a half by fifty-five feet, with projecting 
north and south fronts. At each end of the building are 
porticos. Over the Market proper is a second story, in 
the centre of which is a hall seventy feet by fifty, crowned 
by a dome, and named Quincy Hall, after Josiah Quincy, 
former mayor of the city, and is but a fitting monument 
of his genius. This hall and Faneuil Hall are united by 
a bridge thrown across the street once in three years, and 
in them the Massachusetts Mechanics' Charitable Associa- 
tion holds its fair. 

The principal entrances to the corridor, where the mar- 
ket is held, are from the eastern and western porticos. 
The corridor itself is eight hundred and twelve feet long 
by twelve wide. This space is divided into stalls, where 
various articles of provisions are always on sale. There 
are fourteen departments for mutton, lamb, veal, and 
poultry ; two for poultry and venison ; nineteen for pork, 
lamb, mutton, and poultry ; forty -five for beef; four for 
butter and cheese ; nineteen for vegetables ; and twenty 
for fish. Besides these, the visitor will, as he strolls from 
stall to stall, perceive many varieties of creature comfort ; 
and in one place he will be charmed with the melody of 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 11 

bii-ds offered for sale in cages, and his oFactories may be 
regaled by odors from countless bouquets. 

Faneuil Hall Market was commenced on the 20th of 
August, 1824. Beneath the corner stone was deposited 
a plate bearing the followms inscription : — 

" Faneuil Hall Market, established by the city of 
Boston. This stone was laid April 27, Anno Domini 
Mdcccxxv., in the forty-ninth year of American Inde- 
pendence, and in the third of the incorporation of the 
city. John Quincy Adams, President of the United 
States. Marcus Morton, Lt. Governor and Commander- 
in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The 
population of the city estimated at 50,000 ; that of the 
United States, 11,000,000." 

The Market is situated between North and South Mar- 
ket Streets, in each of which business of various kinds, to 
immense amounts, is transacted. 

Leaving the Market, a few stejis through Commercial 
Street bring us to the United States Custom House. 
It is an imposing edifice, standing at the head of the dock 
between Long and Central Wharves, at the foot of State 
Street. It is in the form of a Greek cross, the opposite 
sides and ends being alike. It is one hundred and forty 
feet long, north and south, seventy-five feet wide at the 
ends, and ninety-five feet through the centre. It is sur- 
mounted by a flat dome, which is ninety-five feet from 



12 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



the floor, and is built in the pure Doric order of architec 
ture. Each front has a portico of six fluted Doric col- 
umns, thirty-two feet in height, and five feet four inches in 
diameter, and is approached by fourteen steps. The col- 
umns are in one piece of highly-wrought granite, and each 
weighs forty-two tons. 




The Custom House is built on three thousand piles, 
driven in the most thorough manner. Immediately on the 
top of these piles is a platform of granite, one foot six 
inches thick, laid in hydraulic cement, and upon it the 
foundations of the walls were commenced. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 13 

-The roof of the building is covered with wrought gran- 
ite tile, and the intersection of the cross is surmounted by 
a dome terminating in a skylight twenty-five feet in diam- 
eter. The dome is also covered with granite tile. 

The cellar, which is ten feet six inches high to the. 
crown of the arches, is principally used for the storage of 
goods, which are conveyed to it through the basement 
story. 

The principal ingress to the entrance story is through 
the porticos. This story contains apartments and offices 
for the assistant ti'easurer, the weighers and gangers, the 
measurers, inspectors, markers, superintendent of build- 
ing, &c. In the centre is a large vestibule, from which 
two broad flights of steps lead to the principal story, land- 
ing in two smaller vestibules therein, lighted by skylights 
in the roof; and these vestibules communicate with all the 
apartments in this story. The several rooms are for the 
collector, assistant collector, naval officer, surveyor, pubUc 
storekeeper, their deputies and clerks. The grand cross- 
shaped rotunda, for the general business of the collector's 
department, in the centre of this story, is finished in the 
Grecian Corinthian order. It is sixty-three feet in its 
greatest length, fifty-nine feet wide, and sixty-two feet 
high to the skyhght. 

The ceiling is supported by twelve columns of mar- 
ble, three feet in diameter and twenty-nine feet in height, 
2 



14 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



with highly-wrought capitals; the ceiling is ornamented 
in a neat and chaste manner, and the skylight is filled 
with stained glass. 

The building was commenced in 1837, and entirely 
completed in 1849. It has cost about $1,076,000, includ- 
ing the site, foundations, &c. 




Passing up State Street, we soon reach The Exchange. 
It is a splendid building, fronting on State Street. The 
corner stone was laid August 2, 1841 ; the building com- 
pleted 1842, and cost, exclusive of land, $175,000. The 
width on State Street is seventy-six feet, the height seventy 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



15 



feet, the depth two hundred and fifty feet, and it covers 
thirteen thousand feet of land. 

The front is of Quincy granite, and has six columns, 
each forty-five feet in height, and weighing fifty-five tons. 
The staircases are of iron and stone, and the entire build- 
ing is fire-proof. The front is occupied by banks, insur- 
ance and other ofiices, and the rear is a hotel, while at the 
top is a telegraph station. There are three entrances, 
one on State, one on Congress, and one on Lindall Street. 




The Merchants' Exchange is up stairs, and is a 
magnificent hall, eighty feet by fifty-eight feet, having its 



16 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

ceiling supported by eighteen imitation Sienna marble 
columns, with Corinthian capitals. There is a grand 
dome overhead, filled with stained glass. Here news- 
papers from all parts of the world are received, read, and 
filed. A superintendent, registrar, news collector, boat- 
men, messengers, «&;c., are attached to the room, and are 
in attendance from seven o'clock in the morning until ten 
at night. Vessels arriving are immediately registered, as 
well as shipping news telegraphed from distant ports. 
Clearances, invoices per railroad, ships, &c., are all en- 
tered, with the name of the consignee, on books kept for 
the purpose. Sales of stocks, cotton, &c., are also regis- 
tered. Merchants, singly, are admitted to all the jirivi- 
leges of the room for eight dollars a year ; firms of two 
persons, ten dollars, &c. These are called subscribers, 
and have the privilege of introducing strangers, whose 
names having been registered in a book kept for that pur- 
pose, are allowed to visit the room and read the papers 
during their stay in the city. The board of brokers have 
tlieir rooms in the Exchange ; and other portions of it are 
used for banking offices, brokers' offices, railroad offices, &c. 
The architectural beauty of the building, and the chaste 
but elaborate workmanship of its rotunda, are alone worth 
a visit. 

The centre of the basement story is occupied by the 
Post Office, where there is a general delivery, a box 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 17 

delivery, a ladies' delivery, and a newspaper delivery, 
besides telegraph and bank offices. 

On Change are anxious men, during banking hours, as 
ever met to buy stocks, sell shares, lend money, or nego- 
tiate loans. From the stone steps of the Post Office to the 
Old State House the crowd extends ; and even a strange 
eye may soon detect the shrewd curbstone broker, balancing 
himself with a tilting motion at the edge of the pavement, 
or the anxious borrower, as he eagerly claims friendship 
with those whose acquaintance he will want to disown a 
few moments later ; while in the centre a speckled cow, 
fatted pig, or evergreen tree invites the attention of those 
not otherwise engaged; while overlooking all, with a 
grave and knowing look, stands the Old State House, 
at the head of State Street, having one front on Washing- 
ton Street. It retains to the present day many of the 
architectural peculiarities of the period when it was built, 
especially that part looking towards the harbor. On its 
summit are signal staffs, where are displayed the flags of 
different merchants when their ships are approaching the 
city, and a modern clock decorates State Street end. 
The lower story is now converted into stores and lawyers' 
and editors' offices ; and where the General Court of the 
Province of Massachusetts used to be holden, gentlemen 

are suited with legal measures, or are measured for panta- 

2* 



18 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



loons — lawyers and tailors pursuing their several voca- 
tions beneath the Old State House roof. 

Fanning the old house with their continuous fluttering, 
(but still depending on it for support,) float the beauteous 
flags of different daily papers ; and as they curl lazily up, 
seem plainly to say, " We show the condition of the world 




abroad and at home. Not a steamer arrives but we heralJ 
the news." And then, as the folds roll out with an indig- 
nant flap, they seem to flirt out that the last news from 
Europe or Washington was not to their liking ; then they 
stop, and leave us to search in the papers they severally 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 19 

represent for particulars ; and it is no easy job to make a 
selection ; for there is the Journal, Traveller, Transcript, 
Advertiser, Post, Commercial Bulletin, Herald, and I 
know not how many others, whose shadows do not fall 
on the hundred-year-old windows of J.e Old State House. 



CHAPTER III. 

OLD SOUTH CHUKCH. BIRTHPLACE OP FRANKLIN. 

CITY HALL. — COURT HOUSE. — STONE CHAPEL. 

CEMETERY. 

The Old South Church stands on Washington 
Street, not far from the Old State House. So much his- 
torical mterest is attached to tliis time-honored buildmg 
that we must be pardoned if we are rather minute in our 
notice of it, for which we are indebted to a sketch in 
Gleason's Pictoral. 

During the first of the seven years' war, a church of 
this then town of Boston of ten thousand inhabitants, that 
externally appeared much as it now does, internally pre- 
sented a strange scene. The sanctuary was profanely 
converted into a riding school for Burgojiie's cavalry. 
The pulpit and the pews, all halloAved by devotion, had 
been taken out to light the fires of our enemies, the hbrary 
of the good pastor being used for kindlings. Hundreds 
of loads of dirt and gravel were carted into the church, 
that it might better answer the strange use to which it was 
put. A box was suspended four feet from the floor, over 

21 



22 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

which fierce horses, tbiven by furious riders, leaped. The 
galleries were occupied, not, as now, by those who freely 
heard the word of God, but by spectators of the games 
below, and by those who sold liquoi's and refreshments, not 
having a reverence for the sanctuary, nor the fear of the 
Maine Law before their eyes. The Old South Church, 
as every body knows, was the centre of this dissipation ; a 
church that has been intimately connected with the history 
of Boston from an early period. At the time alluded to, 
Mr. Blackstone's farm was converted into the town of 
Boston, containing " about two thousand dwelling houses, 
mostly of wood, with scarce any j)ublic buildings, but 
eight or nine churches, the Old State House, and Faneuil 
Hall." The Old South Church, like the First Church, 
and the first Baptist, was organized in Charlestown by 
seceders from the First Church, who were disaffected with 
a call extended to Rev. John Davenport. The first meet- 
ing house was erected on the spot where the present one 
stands, corner of Washington and Milk Streets. The site 
was the gift of Mrs. Norton, widow of Rev. John Norton, 
who was pastor of the First Church. The first house was 
erected soon after the church was gathered, in 1669. It 
was built of wood, with a spire and square pews. The 
first pastor was Rev. Thomas Thatcher, an eminent divine, 
a native of Salisbury, England. Besides being an emi- 
nent theologian he was a physician, and published the first 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 23 

medical tract that ever was issued in Massachusetts. His 
successors were Willard, the eminent divine, Pemberton, 
the eloquent pulpit orator, Sewall, who was known as 
" good Dr. Sewall," who was pastor of the church for fifty 
years, and when his health failed, near the close of his 
life, was carried into the pulpit, and instructed the people 
from Sabbath to Sabbath ; Prince, the able divine and 
learned scholai-. Gumming, Blair, Bacon, Hunt, Eckley, 
Huntington, the first sole pastor ; the devoted Wisner ; the 
gifted and short-lived Stearns ; Blagden and Manning, 
who now minister to this ancient church, ^sixteen in all. 
The present Old South Church is a substantial structure 
of brick, of a style of architecture that is chaste and be- 
coming, though not uncommon. It stands as it has stood 
for more than a century — it having been erected in the 
year 1730. The last sermon was preached in the old 
house March 2, 1729. The next day it was taken down, 
when it was found to be so much decayed that it was 
thought the congregation, the day before, had "a very 
gracious preservation." A curious plan of the lower floor 
of the present house is before us, under the head, " Pues 
on ye lower flore in ye Metting House," evidently drawn 
soon after the building was finished and the pews sold. 
From this plan it appears that the house is eighty-eight 
feet by sixty-one, and that it is substantially now as it was 
at the beginning. Formerly there was a high elders' seat 



24 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

directly in front of the pulpit, and a deacons' seat nearly 
as high. Several of the best pews in the house, accord- 
ing to the custom of the time, were devoted to the accom- 
modation of the aged — a cu ^tom that has become obso- 
lete. In this plan the names of the pew holders are 
given, embracing some of the noblest names of the time, 
such as Governor Belcher, Franklin, Bromfiekl, Brattle, 
Winslow, Cotton, Eliot, «&;c. The following church record 
will assist the reader in understanding the disposition of 
the congregation in the new edifice. " At a meeting of 
the South Church, in their brick meeting house, August 5, 
1730, Voted, That the deacons be desired to procure some 
suitable person to take the oversight of the children and 
servants in the galleries, and take care that good order be 
maintamed in time of divine worship ; and that a suffi- 
cient reward be allowed for the encouragement of such a 
person." 

The Old South Church is a noble structure, situated 
now in the very heart of the city, though, as its name indi- 
cates, at the beginning at its southern extremity. It is sur- 
mounted by one of the loftiest spires in the city. Its bell 
is large and fine toned, and more eyes are upturned to its 
clock daily, we venture to say, than to any other timekeeper 
in New England. Indeed, it is to New England, as to the 
hours, what Boston is as to business. The house is very 
capacious, and, with its two galleries, will seat, perhaps. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 25 

more than any other church in the city. The pulpit is 
very high for these times, and is overshadowed by a sound- 
ing board that makes little children fear for the head of 
the minister- This pulpit is the second in the present 
house, the first one being what was styled a " tub " pulpit. 
The pews, though built not after the modern style, are all 
the more comfortable ; and it would seem that the owners 
never thought of the fact that the land beneath them was 
worth tlnrty dollars the squai'e foot. 

Considerable interest clusters around the Old South 
Church, or " The Sanctuary of Freedom," as it has been 
termed, from the patriotic assemblages that were gathered 
within its walls just previous to the outbreak of the revo- 
lution. In this church Franklin worshipped and ^vas bap- 
tized. Here that prince of preachers, "VVhitefield, lifted 
up his voice like a trumpet. In this temple " our enemies 
in war and our friends in peace " did that which for a mo- 
ment saddens our interest. Within these walls the elec- 
tion sermons have been delivered annually before " the 
powers that be," and multitudes have been educated for 
the church triumphant in heaven. To the Bostonian, the 
very name of 4he " Old South " brings back childish recol- 
lections and happy early associations. Before the city had 
so grown as to extend almost out of town, this was a sort 
of landmark in the designating of distances ; any given 
locality was about so far from the " Old South," this or 
3 



26 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

that side of the " Old South," &c. Indeed, the church is 
not only a sort of landmark as regards the bearings in ovu- 
harbor, as considered by the pilots, but is also a point of 
departure, so to speak, on the land itself. There are few 
notable localities in the city of notions better known than 
is this venerable and revered pile, and the site it occupies 
— a silent remembrancer of scenes and events associated 
with all that is dear to Americans. 

There is a library connected with this church, that was 
bequeathed by Rev. Thomas Prince. It is a precious 
collection, containing many standard works in church his- 
tory, biblical literature, valuable pamphlets, and manu- 
scripts. For nearly one hundred years this has been the 
public library of that church, and accessible to any per- 
son desirous of using it for literary purposes. 

The Birthplace op Franklin was where the block 
of stores now stands that bear the inscription. On that 
spot, under the very shadow of the Old South's tall spire, 
the printer, the legislator, the philosopher, the immortal 
Franklin, was born, whose statue, the work of Richard 
S. Greenough, may be seen in front of the City Hall in 
School Street. 

Passing from Washington to Tremont Street, through 
School Street, the visitor will perceive on his right hand 
the new City Hall, built of fine white Concord granite. 
Exclusive of the sub-cellar, basement and attic stories, 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



27 



it is three stories in height. Its front is a hundred 
and tliirty-eight feet in length, with a projection extend- 




ing fourteen and a half feet from the main line, and fifty- 
one and a half feet in length. The building is ninety- 
five feet deep in the wings, and a hundred and nine and 
a half feet in the centre, and cost about $500,000. 

The corner-stone was laid on the 22d of December, 
1862, with Masonic ceremonies, conducted by the Grand 
Lodge of Massachusetts, under the direction of the Most 
Worshipful Grand Master, William D. Coolidge. 



28 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

In the second story is the mayor and aldermen's room, 
forty-five by forty-five feet, and twenty-five feet four 
inches high, extending upward to the height of the third 
story. 

The common-council chamber is located in the fourth 
story, directly over the mayor and aldermen's room. It 
is forty-five by forty-five feet square on the floor, and 
twenty-seven feet in height to the ceiling, which is octag- 
onal. It has galleries on three sides, capable of seating 
two hundred and fifty persons. "Within the columns 
which support the galleries are iron pillars, supporting 
the immense weight of the dome, which is surmounted 
by a balcony, from which rises a flag-staff" whose height 
above the ground is two hundred feet. Four well-execut- 
ed lions' heads look out fiercely from the corners of the 
dome. 

The upper stories of the building are reached by double 
flights of staircases, surrounded by ample halls. The 
staircases are of iron, with balusters of native oak ; and 
are firm, spacious, and of easy ascent. The architects 
have done themselves great credit in giving to Boston one 
public building with staircases worthy of the name. The 
corridor leading from the School-street entrance to the 
staircases is fifteen feet in width. In the wall back of 
the first landing, and facing the vestibule, is a tablet of 
exquisite workmanship, composed of veined Italian si- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 29 

enna and white statuary marble, upon whicli is the fol- 
lowing inscription : — 

CITY HALL. 

Corner Stone laid December 22, 1862. 

J. M. WiGHTMAN, Mayor. 

Dedicated September 17, 1865. 

F. W. Lincoln, Mayor. 

G. J. F. Bryant, and A. Oilman, Architects. 

The new edifice presents a grand and imposing appear- 
ance, even when viewed at the short distance from which 
only it can be seen. As the visitor ascends its magnifi- 
cent staircase, or looks from its windows upon the pro- 
jecting cornices and beautiful columns, he is deeply 
impressed with the majestic proportions and massive 
strength of the structure. European travellers, and per- 
sons from other cities of the United States, unite in the 
opinion that nowhere on this continent can a municipal 
building be found of such elegance, and so well adapted 
for its designed use. 

The fence in front of the building corresponds well 
with the dignified architecture of the edifice. 

The peninsula, originally eight hundred acres in extent, 

and now, by gradual encroachments on tidewater, about 

fourteen hundred, was known at the early settlement, wher 

William Blackstone was its only inhabitant, as Shawmut. 

Subsequently, for a short period, it was called Tri- 
3* 



30 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

mountain. In 1630, Sept. 7, old style, 17, new, it re- 
ceived from the General Com't the name of Boston. It 
comprises within its municipality South and East Boston, 
and Long, Thompson, Apple, Deer, and Gallop's Islands 
in the harbor ; and its present area is computed at about 
thirty-one hundred acres. After many ineffectual efforts, 
one as early as 1650, it was organized as a city, May 
1, 1822. Its population in 1760 was 18,000; in 1782, 
12,000; in 1790, 18,000; in 1800, 25,000; in 1810, 
33,000 ; in 1820, 43,000 ; in 1860, about 190,000. Its 
valuation, as assessed for city, state, and county taxes in 
1865, is $376,000,000. 

Boston, Chelsea, North Chelsea, and Winthrop consti- 
tute the County of Suffolk. 

The city government, elected in December, consists of 
the mayor and twelve aldermen, and a common council 
of forty-eight members, four from each Avard. The 
board of aldermen, who are also the board of health, 
county commissioners, surveyors of highways, and possess 
certain police powers, hold their regular meetings on Mon- 
days, at four, P.M. ; the council, on Thursday evenings. 
Much of their business is transacted through from forty 
to fifty committees, joint or several, standing or special, 
according to the distribution of powers or subjects re- 
ferred. Meetings of some of the principal committees, 
such as streets, paving, claims, and public buildings, are 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 31 

held at stated times, for the greater convenience of the 
public. The assessors, four chief, nine assistant, and sev- 
eral per diem ; the v^^ater-boai'd ; directors of public insti- 
tutions at Deer Island and South Boston ; directors of 
Mount-Hope Cemetery ; treasurer ; auditor ; physician ; 
engineer ; registrar ; superintendents of health, lands, build- 
ings, sewers, lamps ; the chief engineer of the fire depart- 
ment, and his assistants ; and the harbor-master, — are 
elected by both branches. The chief of police, deputy, 
clerks, eight captains, sixteen lieutenants, sixteen ser- 
geants, detectives, and three hundred and twelve patrol- 
men, with superintendents of the tombs, trucks, carriages, 
pawnbrokers, and the constables, sealers, inspectors, and 
various other officers, are appointed by the mayor, and 
appi'oved by the aldermen. 

Near the City Hall, and in its rear, is the Court 
House. It stands in Court Square. There is not much 
to attract attention within, it being merely plain and sub- 
stantial. An entrance-hall traverses the entire length 
of the building, communicating with the porticos and 
side-doors. Stone staircases, branching off from this 
corridor, lead to the various court-rooms. On the first 
floor are the Justices' Courts, Court of Insolvency, and 
the offices of the clerks of the different courts. 

The Supreme Judicial Court for the Commonwealth 
sits for the hearing of legal arguments on the first Wednes- 



32 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

day of January. The Supreme Judicial Court for the 
county of Suffolk sits for juyy trials, and matters to be 
heard by a single judge, on the first Tuesday of April and 
October ; and, for the hearing of matters in equity, the 
court is practically open every day at chambers when a 
judge is present ; the Superior Court on the first Tues- 
day of January, April, July, and October ; the Supe- 
rior Court for the transaction of criminal business on the 
first Monday in every month. The Municipal Court is 
busied every day in the trial of criminal offenders, and 
also sits every Saturday for the transaction of civil busi- 
ness. 

The Social Law Library Room, on the second floor, 
is a comfortable and well-lighted apartment, and con- 
tains a good selection of juridical text-book^, including 
writers in general law, and the English and American 
Reports. 

In the basement are cells for the temporary accommo- 
dation of prisoners ; and at the side door opposite the 
the Raih-oad Exchange may be seen every morning, about 
nine o'clock, the jail van discharging its load of prisoners 
for examination. To one fond of seeing human nature in 
all its phases, an hour in the Municipal Court any morn- 
ing will not be thrown away. 

Nearly opposite the City Hall is the Parker House, a 
spacious marble-front hotel, conducted upon the Euro- 



BOSTON AND VICINITT. 33 

pean plan, — one of the most popular restaurants in Bos- 
ton. Not far from here, on the corner of Tremout 
and Beacon Streets, is the equally well-known Tremont 
House. 

Stoke Chapel stands at the corner of School and 
Tremont Streets. It was built in 1750, and is a plain, 
substantial structure. The comer stone was laid by Gov- 
ernor Sliirley. The Cemetery adjoining (from the pre- 
cious dust it holds) should be forever revered by native 
and stranger. Johnson, the " Father of Boston," as he 
has been termed, according to his wish was buried here ; 
and the people evinced their affection for him by ordering 
their bodies to be buried near him ; and this was the origin 
of the first bur^-ing-place in Boston. 

The Lady Arabella, his wife, was the pride and love 
of the colony; and historians tell us that though there 
were several other women of distinction who encountered 
the fatigues and dangers of those days with laudable reso- 
lution, the devotedness of this lady — lady in deed as well 
as name — was conspicuous above all. 

The sentiments of her heart to him are described in the 
following language : '" Whithersoever your fatall destine 
shall dryve you, eyther by the furious waves of the great 
ocean, or by the many-folde and horrible dangers of the 
lande, I wyl surely not leave your company. There can 
no perjll chaunce to me so terrible, nor any kinde of 



34 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

death so cruell, that shall not be much easier for me to 
abyde than to Uve so farre separate from you." 

She came to the wilderness, illumined it by her love, 
her piety, her charities and faith, and died in the then 
mere village of Salem. Not one of those who had known 
her but wept bitterly at the event. It was as if all the 
flowers of the garden should hang their heads at the blast- 
ing of the rose. May her memory distil sweets upon the 
hearts of wives like her 



" And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 
May violets spring," forever. 



Many are the good and great whose remains repose 
here ; but no character of those days has come down to us 
with brighter memories than that of Governor John Win- 
throp, whose remains also repose in the Chapel Burial 
Ground, in the family tomb, on the north side. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE BOSTON MUSEUM. — HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

On Ti'emont Sti'eet, between Court and School Streets, 
stands the Boston Museum, Hon. Moses Kimball pro- 
prietor. It is a spacious building, three stories high ; its 
front adorned by balconies, and rows of glass globes, 
which, at night, are illuminated by gas. 

We reach the interior by a bold flight of stairs, at the 
summit of which is the entrance to the Hall of Cabi- 
nets, which is surrounded by a gallery, and whose ceil- 
ing is supported by noble Corinthian pillars. Along the 
gallery are arranged portraits of celebrated Americans. 
On the floor of the hall are statuary and works of art, 
and, arranged in glass cases, curiosities from all parts of 
the known Avorld. The galleries, reached by a grand 
staircase, are filled with the rich and rare products of 
many a clime. Ascending still higher, we find a collec- 
tion of wax-figures, singly and in groups ; and surmount- 
ing all is an observatory, affording splendid views of the 
city, the harbor and its islands. 

The Museum Theatre is very well managed. The 

36 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



37 




visitor there has no rowdyism to fear, and nothing occurs 
to offend the most fastidious. 



38 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

The Museum building covers twenty thousand feet of 
land, and is crowded with every variety of birds, quad- 
rupeds, fish, reptiles, insects, shells, minerals, fossils, &c. 
Then there is the Feejee Mermaid, alluded to by Bar- 
num in his Autobiography, together with more than one 
thousand costly paintings, among which is Sully's great 
picture of Washington crossing the Delaware, portraits 
by Copley, West, Stuart, &c. In short, there are to be 
seen nearly five hundred thousand rare or curious articles, 
and all for the marvellously small sum of thirty cents. 

The rooms of the Massachusetts Historical So- 
ciety are next to the Museum, in a granite building on 
Tremont Street. The library of the society contains 
about sixteen thousand volumes, with maps, charts, and 
seven hundred and uinety-one volumes of manuscripts. 
Among the treasures are manuscripts of the historian 
Hubbard, of the first Governor Winthrop, eleven volumes 
of Governor Hutchinson, of Governor Jonathan Trum- 
bull, of Coimecticut, twenty-three volumes, and the manu- 
script of Washington's addi'ess to the officers of the 
American army. There is also a copy of Eliot's Indian 
Bible. The portraits of persons, mostly New England 
worthies, adorn the room; two of special value are, 
Rev. Increase Mather, and Sebastian Cabot. These rooms 
contain many relics of the past ; among these are Philip's 
samp pan, an article of Indian antiquity that perhaps 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 39 

may have been used by Massasoit himself before it be- 
came the property of his youngest son, the renowned 
sachem of Pokanoket ; and here also is Captain Church's 
sword, with which the chief was slain. The Carver 
sword, a worthy memento of a pilgrim, speaks louder 
than words of the dangers our forefathers incurred be- 
fore a city's smoke rose from the three hills of Shaw- 
mut ; and Winslow's chair, that tradition says " was made 
in London in 1614, and brought over in the Mayflower 
by Edward Winslow," now, after many years of hard 
service, is treasured as a valuable heirloom. Also the 
Dowse Library, containing 4,650 volumes of rare works, 
richly bound. 




CHAPTER V. 

BOSTON ATHENyEUM. CLUB HOUSES. 




The magnificent building for the use of the Boston 
Athen^um is situated on Beacon Street, near the State 
House. It is of Patterson freestone, and in the Palladian 

40 



BOSTON AND VICINITY, 41 

Style of arcliitecture. It is one hundred and fourteen feet 
m length, of irregular breadth, sixty feet in height, and 
stands ten feet back from the street, the ground space in 
iront being surrounded by a balustrade with stone coping. 
The main entrance opens into a panelled and decorated 
rotunda, from wliich fine iron staircases conduct above. 

The Sculpture Gallery is in the first story, and is 
eighty feet in length. Its entrance is immediately oppo- 
site the front door. Here is to be found a fiiie collection 
of works of art in marble, and casts in plaster. Among 
them are the following in marble : Orpheus entering 
the realms of Pluto in search of Eurydice, by T. G. 
Crawford ; Hebe and Ganymede, by the same sculptor ; 
bust of Daniel Webster, by Powers ; bust of Allston, by 
Clevenger ; group of children, by PI. Greenough, and the 
celebrated Venus de Medici. The collection is very rich 
in casts from the antique statues in the Vatican. Among 
them, the statues of Mercury, Minerva Polias, Meander, 
Silenus with the infant Bacchus, Athlete, Barberini Fawn, 
Fighting Gladiator, Dying Gladiator, and Discobolus, 
Michael Angelo's Night and Morning, Thorwaldsen's Ve- 
nus, the Laocoon, and Apollo Belvidere, are represented 
by fine casts. 

The Reading Room is on the right of the vestibule. 
On the left is the library of the American Academy of 
4* 



42 BOSTON AND VTCINITT. 

Arts and Sciences. In the vestibule stands Ball Hughes's 
statue of Bowditch, and a cast of Houdon's statue of 
"Washington in the State House of Virginia. 

The Library occupies the second story, which is divided 
into tliree rooms, two in front, and one large hall (one hun- 
dred and nine feet by forty) in the rear. This hall is 
beautifully finished in the Italian style. The shelving is 
carried to the height of eighteen or twenty feet, and the 
upper shelves are made accessible by means of a light 
iron gallery reached by, five spiral staircases. Besides 
eighty-five thousand bound volumes, this library pos- 
sesses fifty thousand or more of unbound pamphlets, and 
between four and five hundred volumes of engravings. 
It also contains part of the library of Washington, — in 
all about four hundred and fifty bound volumes. The 
library is hai'dly surpassed, either in size or in value, by 
any other in the country ; and although strictly a private 
institution for the especial benefit of its stockholders, — 
it being an incorporated stock company with a capital 
and property of more than half a million, — its regula- 
tions are framed with the design that it shall answer the 
highest purposes of a public library. Strangers are free 
to walk through the library, and can easily obtain ad- 
mittance as readers by the introduction of a proprietor. 

Picture Gallery. — The third story contains three 
rooms that are appropriated to the exhibition of paint- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



43 



ings, and of these there is an admirable collection. A 
numbered catalogue may be obtained at the door. Many 
of the paintings belong to private individuals, and are 
liable to removal ; so we shall avoid mention of them, and 
briefly touch on a few belonging to the Athenaeum. Here 
are the original portraits of Washington and of Lady 
Washington, by Stuart ; the Sortie of Gibraltar, by 
Trumbull ; Judith, with the head of Holofernes ; Count 
of Wurtemberg lamenting hisJChild, by Ary Schoeffer; 
St. Michael chaining Satan, after Guido ; Priam receiv- 
ing the dead body of Hector, by Trumbull ; Feast of Bel- 
shazzar, by Allston, and Allston's fine original heads of 
Benjamin West, Isaac of York, and the Jew. In con- 
clusion, we cannot help mentioning Dante and Beatrice, 
by Ary Schoeffer, and St. Pete&'s release from Prison, by 
Allston. The gallery is well worthy of frequent visits, 
and will doubtless do much to promote the progress of 
art in Boston. 

Admittance thirty cents, the Sculpture Gallery in- 
cluded. 

Proceeding towards the State House, a few steps bring 
us to the large house, corner of Beacon and Park Streets, 
a mansion interesting from the fact that it was fitted up 
when a club-house for the accommodation of General 
Lafayette and his suite, when the illustrious friend of 
Washington was the guest of the city. At the period 



44 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



of the Revolution, the almshouse stood upon this site, ex- 
tending on Beacon Street beyond the westerly boundary 
of the Athen^um estate. Next to it, on Park Street, was 
the workhouse ; then came the town pound ; on the site 
of Park Street Church stood the granary, whence the 
name of the adjacent burying-ground. In the enclosure 
of the workhouse yard, we believe, the bodies of the 




British soldiers killed at Bunker Hill were laid out, in the 
order of their regiments and companies, previous to inter- 
ment. 
The old almshouse was pulled down in the year 1800 ; 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 45 

and, in the early part of the century, the large building 
shown in the engraving was erected for Thomas Amory ; 
and, when in the occupation of Governor Gore, the body 
of Fisher Ames, who died July 4, 1808, was thence 
taken to the place of interment. 

The northerly part of the edifice was prepared for the 
reception of General Lafayette in 1824, and afterwards 
used as a club-house. The southerly portion is now the 
residence of George Ticknor, well known to the public 
by his literary tastes and productions. 

The Union Cldb-Hodse, one part of ttie front of 
which is seen in the picture, adjoining the residence of 
Mr. Ticknor, was formerly the residence of Plon, Abbott 
Lawrence, the eminent New-England manufacturer, who 
was minister to England under the administration of 
President Taylor. The Union Club was organized in 
1863 for the purpose of promoting patriotic sentiment in 
the social circles of Boston and its vicinity. Its earlier 
meetings were presided over by the venerable Josiah 
Quincy ; and Hon. Edward Everett was the first presi- 
dent of the club, being succeeded, on his death in 1865, 
by Hon. Charles G. Loring. In the spring of 1863, the 
mansion of Mr. Lawrence was purchased, remodelled, 
and furnished for the club-house at an expense of about 
$100,000. The apartments exceed in convenience and 
elegance those of any other of the club-houses of the city, 



46 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

and will compare with those of the renowned clubs of 
London. They include a library and a restaurant. The 
members of this club embrace the most eminent names 
in the political, literary, and business circles of Massa- 
chusetts ; and its influence has been constantly and power- 
fully exerted in aid of the Government during the civil 
war, and in hospitality to the most distinguished friends 
of the Union from all parts of this country and from 
abroad. 

The social clubs of the city are strictly private in their 
character, and are all of them of comparatively recent 
date. The Quarantine Club, of forty members, existed 
thirty or forty years ago, on Milk Street. About the 
year 1840, the Tremont Circle was organized on Tremont 
Row, and grew into the Somerset Club, now consisting 
of nearly two hundred members, occupying the building 
at the corner of Beacon and Somerset Streets. Several 
of the members of the old Quarantine Club assisted to 
form the Temple Club, formerly located on Temple Ave- 
nue, and which now, consisting of about two hundred 
members, occupies a handsome edifice erected for the 
purpose on West Street. Another Tremont Club suc- 
ceeded that on Tremont Row. At the beginning of the 
late civil war, the Union Club was organized, and is flour- 
ishing, with several hundred members ; and there has 
been more recently formed another on Bromfield Street, 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 47 

called the Constitutional ; both of the last mentioned pro- 
fess to be slightly political as well as social in their na- 
ture. 

The Masonic and Odd Fellows' Lodges, and many 
other similar associations, are believed to combine with 
their other objects the social element. 



CHAPTER VI. 

TREMONT TEMPLE. MEIONAON. PAEK STREET CHUKCH. 

GEANARY CEMETERY. NEW MUSIC HALL. UNITED- 
STATES COURT-HOUSE. MASONIC TEMPLE. 




This spacious edifice stands opposite the Tremont 
House, Tremont Street. Of a rich and warm brown tint, 
produced by a coating of mastic, it presents a peculiarly 



48 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 49 

substantial and elegant frontage. It is seventy-five feet in 
height, and, with the exception of ten feet by sixty-eight, 
which is left open on the north side for light, the building 
covers an area of thirteen thousand feet. 

Passing through the gi'eat central doorway, we find our- 
selves in the spacious entrance hall. On the first floor we 
observe on our right and left hand two ticket offices, and 
a broad flight of stau's also on either hand, each of which 
at their summit terminates in a landing, from whence to 
right and left diverge two flights of similar staircases, one 
landing you in the centre of the main hall, and the other 
to the rear part and the gallery. 

The Main Hall is a magnificent apartment. The 
utter absence of gilding and coloring on its walls renders 
it far more imposing and grand in appearance than if it 
had been elaborately ornamented with auriferous and 
chromatic splendors. It is one hundred and twenty-four 
feet long, seventy-two feet wide, and fifty feet high. 
Around the sides of it runs a gallery supported on trusses, 
so that no pillars intervene between the spectators and the 
platform, to obstruct the view. The front of this gallery 
is balustraded, and by this means a very neat and uniform 
effect is secured. The side galleries project over the seats 
below about seven feet. They are fitted with rows of 
nicely-cushioned and comfortable seats, and are not so 
high as to render the ascent to them wearisome in the 
5 



50 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

least degree. The front gallery, though it projects into 
tlie hall only ten feet, extends back far enough to give it 
more than three times that depth. 

Directly opposite this gallery is the platform, with its 
gracefully-panelled, semicircular front. This platform, 
covered with a neat oil cloth, communicates with the side 
galleries by a few steps, for the convenience of large 
choirs. There are also several avenues of communication 
from the platform to the apartments, dressing rooms, &c., 
behind, which are exceedingly convenient, and are far 
superior to the places of exit and entrance from and to 
any other place of the kind that we have ever seen. 

From the front of the platform the floor of the hall 
gradually rises so as to afford every person in the hall a 
full and unobstructed view of the speakers or vocalists, as 
the case may be. The seats in the galleries rise in like 
manner. The seats on the hall floor are admirably 
arranged in a semicircular form from the front of the 
platform, so that every face is directed towards the 
speaker or singer. They are each one numbered, have 
iron ends, are capped with mahogany, and are completely 
cushioned with a drab-colored material. Each slip is 
capable of containing ten or twelve persons, with an aisle 
at each extremity, and open from end to end. 

The side walls of the hall are very beautifully orna- 
mented in panels, arched and decorated with circular 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 51 

ornaments, which would be diflficult properly to describe 
without the aid of accompanying drawings ; but as views^ 
of the interior of the Temple will soon be common enough, 
the omission here will be of little consequence. As we 
intimated, there is no fancy coloring; it is a decorated 
and relieved surface of dead white, and the effect, lighted 
as it is from above by large panes of rough plate glass, is 
beautifully chaste. The only color observable in the hall 
is the purple screen behind the diamond open work at the 
back of the platform, and which forms a screen in fi'ont 
of the organ. 

The ceiling is very finely designed in squares, at the 
intersections of which are twenty-eight gas burners, with 
strong reflectors, and a chandelier over the orchestra, 
shedding a mellow but ample light over the hall. By 
this arrangement the air heated by innumerable jets of 
gas is got rid of, and the lights themselves act as most 
efficient ventilators. The eyes are likewise protected 
from glare ; and should an escape of gas take place, from 
its levity it passes up through shafts to the outside, and 
does not contaminate the atmosphere below. Under the 
galleries are common burners. There are for day illumi- 
nation twelve immense plates of glass, ten feet long by 
four feet wide, placed in the ceiling, in the spring of the 
arch, and open directly to the outer light, and by sixteen 
smaller ones under the galleries. 



52 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

The whole of the flooring of the hall, in the galleri(>s, 
the body of it, and of the platform, consists of two layers 
of boards, with the interstices between them filled by a 
thick bed of mortar. The advantages of this in an acous- 
tical point of view must be obA'ious to all. Another ad- 
vantage is, that the applause made by the audience in this 
great hall does not disturb the people who may at the 
same time be holding a meeting in the other hall below — 
a very important consideration. 

There are eight flights of stairs leading from the floors 
of the main hall, and four from the galleries, the aggre- 
gate width of which is over fifty feet. 

The Boston Young Men's Christian Association occupy 
several beautiful rooms up one flight of stairs, which are 
admirably adapted for their present uses and occupants, 
and are rented by the Association for twelve hundi'ed dol- 
lars per annum, though it is estimated that they are worth 
at least fifteen hundred dollars ; but the Temple is owned 
by a church who were very desirous that a religious asso- 
ciation should occupy them. The great organ, built by 
the Messrs. Hook, is one of the finest instruments ever 
constructed m this country. Its bellows is worked by 
steam. 

The Tremont Temple, besides the great hall, contains a 
lesser one, called The Meionaon, the main entrance to 
which is through the northerly passage way, opposite the 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 53 

doors of the Tremont House ; this avenue is about seven 
feet wide. The southerly passage way serves as an outlet 
from this lesser iemple. 

Perhaps the reader, who may not have been initiated 
into the mysteries of Greek literature, may tliank us for 
a definition of this strange-looking word, '' Meionaon." It 
is so called from two Greek words — meion, signifying 
less, smaller, and naon, temple — Lesser Temple. It is 
pronounced Mi-o-na-on. This lesser temple is situated 
back from the street, and directly under the great hall. 
It is seventy-two feet long by fifty-two feet wide, and 
about twenty-five and a half feet high. Not so elaborately 
adorned as its neighbor overhead, this hall is remarkably 
chastely and beautifully fitted up, and witlun its walls the 
religious society of Tremont Street Baptist Church wor- 
ship. Its walls are relieved by pilasters supporting arches. 
The seats are similarly arranged to those in the hall above, 
and are equally comfortable and commodious in all respects. 
At one end is a platform, on which, on Sabbath days, stands 
a beautiful little pulpit, of dark walnut, and cushioned with 
crimson velvet. At the other extremity of the hall is a 
gallery for a choir ; back of it stands a neat little organ. 
The place is beautifully adapted for sound, and competent 
judges say from their own experience that it is a remarka- 
bly easy place to speak in. From the hall to the outer 
door the way is through a broad passage way covered with 
5* 



54 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

Manilla matting let into the floor, so that little dirt can be 
brought in from the street ; and as the doors swing on 
noiseless hinges, no interruption from sqyffling of feet or 
slammings can ever occur. 

The Cupola. — In making our way thither we travel 
over the ceiling of the great hall, dropping our heads as 
we pass beneath roof and rafter, to save our hat and skull, 
and beholding beneath oui- feet a great network of gas- 
piping connected with the burners of the hall under us. 
In long rows are square ventilators, which discharge their 
streams of vitiated air on the outside. 

The cupola forms a spacious observatory, glazed all 
round, and from every ^\dndow is obtained a charming 
view, the whole forming one of the most superb pano- 
ramas that we ever witnessed. From this elevated spot 
may be seen the adjacent villages and towns, the harbor 
and its islands, the city institutions, churches, houses, and 
shipping. In short, the whole city and vicinity lies at our 
feet. 

Park Street Church is situated at the comer of 
Tremont and Park Streets. The spire is remarkably 
beautiful, and the interior very spacious and striking. 
Close by lies Granary Burying Ground — a spot hal- 
lowed by the remains of many good, and brave, and beau- 
tiful as such can be. Here a mounument has been laid 
over the graves of Dr. Frankhn's parents. It is an obelisk 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



55 



twenty-five feet high, formed of seven blocks of Quincy 
granite, each weighing about six tons ; and the name of 
"FrankUn" can be easily read from the street. The 
stranger often stops to gaze at the flowers blooming among 




those gray old tombstones, or to read the time-worn inscrip- 
tions of the mourned ones' virtues — virtues perhaps not 
visible during life, but " known and read of all men " when 
they have passed away. 

Nearly across the street from here is 

The New Music Hall. — Until within the last few 
years, although a musical people, the city was sadly in 



56 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

want of a fitting place for concerts, &c. Now, however, 
we have a Music Hall of the first class, which we can 
refer to with pride as an ornament to our metropolis, and 
an index of the taste and liberality of Boston. 

There has been no attempt at display on the exterior 
of the building, it being deemed important to reserve, as 
far as practicable, for the interior the means contributed 
for the enterprise. 

The hall is one hundred and thirty feet long, seventy- 
eight feet wide, and sixty-five feet high, the proportion of 
length to width being as five to three, and of length to 
height as two to one. Two balconies extend round three 
sides of the hall. 

The ceiUng, which is forty feet above the floor of the 
upper balcony, is in general section flat, and connected 
with the wall by a large cove, in which are seventeen 
semicircular windows, that light the hall by day. A I'ow 
of gas jets, projecting from the edge of the cornice, just 
below these windows, light the hall by night. 

The floor is arranged with seats which will accommo- 
date upwards of fifteen hundred persons, and there is sufii- 
cient room in the balconies for upwards of one thousand 
more. 

The orchestral platform is raised five feet above the 
floor of the hall, and rises by a few steps to the organ. 
From each side of the orchestra to the floor of the lower 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 57 

balcony is a series of raised platforms for choristers, or 
for the audience, as may be required. The whole orches- 
tra will accommodate upwards of four hundred persons. 

The whole has been constructed with special reference 
to the science of acoustics — a consideration of the utmost 
importance in a building intended for a music hall. The 
architect, George Snell, Esq., has endeavored to combine 
in this structure the advantages which he has been able to 
discover by a careful personal examination of numerous 
music halls in Europe and America. This is of especial 
importance, as there has been placed here one of the 
largest organs in the world. [See page 170.] 

In the matter of ventilation, the architect had the 
assistance of the large expei'ience, in that department, 
of Dr. Morrill Wyman, of Cambridge. Mr. Alpheus C. 
Morse, a native of Boston (a partner of Mr. Snell), also 
assisted in the arrangement of the decorations of the in- 
terior. 

The entrances are from Winter Street, Bumstead Place, 
and Bromfield Street. Ample accommodations are afford- 
ed for drawing rooms, alcoves, offices, &c. 

The United-States Coubt House (formerly the Ma- 
sonic Temple) is situated on the corner of Tremont 
Street and Temple Place : it is sixty feet wide, and eighty 
feet long, and fronts westwardly on Tremont Street. The 
walls are fifty-two feet high, of stone, covered with a slated 



58 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



roof, twenty-four feet high, containing sixteen windows to 
light the attic story. The gutters are of cast iron, and 
the water trunks are of copper. The basement is of fine 




hammered granite, twelve feet high, with a belt of the 
same. The towers at the comers next Tremont Street 
are sixteen feet square, surmounted with granite battle- 
ments, and pinnacles rising ninety-five feet from the 
ground. The door and window frames are of fine ham- 
mered granite, and the main walls, from the basement to 
the roof, are of Quincy granite, disposed in courses, in 
such a manner as to present a finished appearance to the 



BOSTON AND VICINITY, 59 

eye. The blocks are triangular in shape, and there is 
probably no other such building in Massachusetts. 

This building was the property of the Grand Lodge 
of Massachusetts, but has for some years been occupied 
and known as the United-States Court House. 

The New Masonic Temple stands on the site of the 
late Winthrop House, at the corner of Tremont and 
Boylston Streets, which was destroyed by fire April 5, 
1864. Freenaasons' Hall being a part of the Win- 
throp House, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts lost 
property, uninsured, worth from S80,0(30 to $100,000. 
With the many valuable articles in the masonic apart- 
ments, were portraits of Henry Price, first Grand Mas- 
ter, 1733 ; Major-Gen. Joseph Warren, Paul Revere, and 
their successors in office, including Winslow Lewis, John 
T. Heard, and William D. Coolidge, Esqrs. ; a full-length 
portrait of Gen. Washington, and portraits of distin- 
guished members of the fraternity, with many inter- 
esting documents and letters, among which were auto- 
graph-letters of Gen. Washington, Benjamin Franklin, 
and Marquis Lafayette. 

Bidding an affectionate farewell to the ruins of the 
Winthrop House and the old Freemasons' Hall, where 



" every man in every face 
Beheld a brothtr and a friend," 



60 



BOSTON AKD VICINITY. 



we introduce the new Masonic Temple. Designs for (he 
fa9ade of the new Masonic Temple, of great excellence 
and beauty, were submitted by the principal architects 




of Boston. That adopted was drawn by Mr. M. G. 
Wheelock. " The idea, or motifs of the design, in an 
artistic sense, is to present such a combination of the 
architectural forms characteristic of the mediceval ages 
(which forms owe, if not their invention, at least their 
development, to the combined labors of the travelling 
masons of that period) as naturally to suggest the most 
effective poetical and historical associations connected 



BOSTOX AND VICINITY. 



61 



with the masonic institution." The front, upon Tremont 
Street, is, in round numbers, ninety feet in width, and 
eighty-six feet in height, to the coping, or gutter. The 
elevation is divided into four stories : above these, in the 
roof, a fifth story," A full description of the temple 
may be found in "The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine" 
for September, 1864. The corner-stone was laid on Fri- 
day, Oct. 14, 1864, by the Most Worshipful Wijliam 
Parkman, Grand Master. Invitations were sent to the 
lodges, and all other masonic bodies in the Common- 
wealth ; and it is believed that there were present on that 
occasion a larger assemblage of masons in regalia than 
were ever before brought together on any public occasion 
in Massachusetts. 



MASONIC MEETINGS IN 
St. John's Lodge 
Mount Lebanon . 
Massachusetts . 
Germania 
Revere 
Aberdour 
Joseph Warren 
Eleusis 
Columbian 
St. Andrew's 
Winslow Lewis 
Mount Tabor, East Boston 
Baalbec, East Boston 
Hammatt, East Boston . 
6 



BOSTON. 

1st Monday. 
. 2d Monday. 

3d Monday. 
. 4th Monday. 

1st Tuesday. 
. 2d Tuesday. 

4th Tuesday. 
. 3d Wednesday. 

1st Thursday. 
. 2d Thursday. 

2d Friday. 
. 3d Thursday. 

1st Tuesday. 
. 4th Wednesday. 



62 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



St. Paul's, South Boston 



1st Tuesday. 



Gate of the Temple, South Boston . 4th Tuesday. 

St. Andrew's Chapter . . . 1st Wednesday. 
St. Paul's Chapter .... 3J Tuesday. 

St. John's Chapter, East Boston . 4th Monday. 

St. Matthew's Chapter, South Boston . 2d Monday. 
Council Royal and Select Masters . Last Thursday. 
Boston Encampment . . . .3d Wednesday. 
De Molay Encampment . . . 4t!!i Wednesday 
St. Bernard Encampment . . .1st Friday. 
St. Omar Encampment, South Boston 1st Monday. 

Grand Lodge, 2d Wednesday in December, March, June, 

and September; 27th December, annually. 
Grand Chapter, Tuesday preceding G. L. Meetings. 
Grand Council, Tuesday preceding G. L. Meetings. 
Grand Encampment of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, in 

May and October. 
Convention of High Priests, 3d Monday in September. 

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. 

Boston Grand Lodge of Perfection, . 3d Friday. 

Mount Olivet Chapter of Rose Croix, . 3d Friday. 

Boston Council of Princes of Jerusalem, 3d Friday. 

Boston Sovereign Consistory, . 3d Friday. 

Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General 
33° for the Northern Jurisdiction, annually on 3d Wednes- 
day in May. 

Sovereign Grand Consistory, appendant to the Supreme 
Council, annually on 3d Wednesday in May. 

Board of Relief, first Tuesday iij each month. 

The meetings in Boston proper are now held in Thorn- 
dike Hall, Summer Street. 




■^.C' 

^ 



- "^ifigi'™iiif(ii*,j'i|'iiiPiiii'i!i!i;^tiyi^-\-- " 

-^, CHAPTER VII. 

THE STATE HOUSE, — HANCOCK HOUSE. BOSTON WATER- 
WORKS. 

Long before the stranger reaches Boston, he must have 
seen, from the window of the railway-car, or the vessel's 
deck, an imposing dome, crowning the summit of the 
highest of the three hills on which the city is built. 
On a nearer approach, he will perceive that this dome 
surmounts a splendid and spacious edifice ; and this, he 
will learn, is 

The State House. — To this place it would be well 
to pay an early visit, as from the window of the lofty 
cupola he will be enabled to take such a bird's eye 
or panoramic view of the city, as will enable him, by 
fully comprehending its various localities, and their rela- 
tions to each other, to render his future investigations all 
the easier. In any city such a proceeding would prove 
advantageous, but especially is it so in Boston, where 

63 



64 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

strangers, in consequence of the crooked streets, experience 
more difficulty in ascertaining their whereabouts than 
perhaps in any other large place in the Union ; and here 
we now are. 

It were scarcely possible to conceive a more appropriate 
situation for such a building than the one occupied by the 
State House. It is erected about the centre 'of the city, 
on elevated ground, at the corner of Beacon and Mount 
Vernon streets. The corner-stone was laid on the Fourth 
of July, 1795, by Governor Samuel Adams, who made an 
address on the occasion, in which " he trusted that within 
its walls liberty and the rights of man would be forever 
advocated and supported." In 1798 the building was 
finished, and occupied by the Legislature. 

When the corner-stone of the New State House was to 
be laid, it was conveyed to the spot by fifteen white horses, 
there being, at that time, but fifteen States in the Union. 
Now they are more than doubled. 

The height of the capitol, to the summit of the dome, is 
one hundred and ten feet; the frontage is one hundred 
and seventy-three feet. " It consists externally of a base- 
ment story twenty feet high, and a principal story thirty 
feet high. This, in the centre of the front, is covered with 
an attic sixty feet wide, and twenty feet high, which is 
covered with a pediment. Immediately above arises the 
dome, fifty feet in diameter, and thirty in height ; the 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 65 

whole terminating with an elegant circular lantern, which 
supports a pine cone. The basement story is finished in a 
plain style on the wings, with square windows. The 
centre is ninety-four feet in length, and formed of arches 
which project fourteen feet, and make a covered walk 
below, and support a colonnade of Corinthian columns of 
the same extent above. 

" The largest room is in the centre, and in the second 
story (the large space below in the basement story is 
directly under this) is the Representatives' Chamber, that 
will accommodate five hundred members, and sometimes 
they have been more numerous. The Senate Chamber is 
also in the second story, at the east end of the building, 
and is sixty feet by fifty. At the west is a large 
room for the meetings of the Grovernor and the Executive 
Council, with a convenient ante-chamber." 

The view from the top of the State House is very 
extensive and variegated ; perhaps nothing in the country 
is superior to it. To the east appears the bay and harbor 
of Boston, interspersed with beautiful islands ; and in the 
distance beyond the wide-extended ocean. To the north 
the eye is met by Charlestown, with its interesting and 
memorable heights, and the Navy Yard of the United 
States ; the towns of Chelsea, Maiden, and Medford, and 
other villages, and the natural forests mingling in the 
distant horizon. To the west is a fine view of the Charles 
6* 



66 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

river and a bay, the ancient town of Cambridge, rendered 
venerable for the university, now above two hundred 
years old ; of the flourishing villages of Cambridgeport 
and East Cambridge (in the latter of which is a large 
glass manufacturing establishment) ; of the highly-culti- 
vated towns of Brighton, Brookline, and Newton ; and to 
the south is Roxbury, which seems to be only a continu- 
ation of Boston, and which is rapidly increasing ; Dor- 
chester, a fine, rich, agricultural town, with Milton and 
Quincy beyond, and still further south the Blue Hills, at 
the distance of eight or nine miles, which seem to bound 
the prospect. The Common, stretching in front of the 
capitol, with its numerous walks and flourishing trees, 
where " the rich and the poor meet together," and the 
humblest have the proud consciousness that they are free, 
and, in some respects (if virtuous), on a level with the 
learned and the opulent, adds greatly to the whole scene. 
Large sums have recently been expended in additions 
to the State House, both within and without. On the 
lawns in front are two beautiful fountains. The design 
of the enlargement was to obtain additional fire-proof room 
for the safety and security of the archives of the state ; 
a library-room sufficiently commodious to satisfy the 
wants of the present and future ; and additional accom- 
modations for the several departments of the government, 
including the agricultural bureau recently established. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 67 

The plan adopted comprised ante or committee rooms for 
the use of the Senate and Council, and committee rooms 
for the general use of the Legislature. The dimensions of 
the library are as follows : Length, eighty-eight feet ; width, 
thirty-seven feet ; height, thirty-six and a half feet. It is 
fitted with galleries and alcoves, which will afford abun- 
dant space for the accumulations of many future years. 
The basement and fire-proof rooms beneath the library are 
of the same dimensions as the latter, with the exception 
of the height ; and they will be sufficient to accommodate 
the agricultural department, and to afford room and 
security for the public archives. All the designs of 
the plan, so far as providing accommodations is con- 
cerned, are fully carried out in the structure, which is 
completely fire-proof, and built in the most substantial 
and massive style. The wall of the basement story is of 
" rusticated dressed granite," and the others of brick. A 
large amount of iron is used in the structure, which gives 
it an air of grandeur and solidity. 

Visitors to the cupola are required to inscribe their 
names on a register. 

For the enlargement of the State House, the city is 
largely indebted to the activity and perseverance of the 
Hon. F. Brinley, then a senator from Suffolk County. 

One of the first objects that attract the attention of 
a stranger, on entering the State House, is the statue 



68 



BOSTON Alsa> VICINITY. 



of Washington, by Sir F, Cliantrey, which is placed in 
the rotunda. This statue was purchased by private sub- 
scription, and was placed where it now stands in 1828. 

Fac-similes of the Memorial Tablets of the Washing- 
ton Family, presented to Hon. Charles Sumner by 
Earl Spencer, and by IIou. Charles Sumner to the Com- 
monwealth, are placed upon the marble floor in front of 
the statue. Bronze statues of Daniel Webster and Hor- 
ace Mann stand in front of the State House. 







The Hancock House. — Until the year 1863, near 
the capitol, on the west, stood the mansion-house of the 
eminent patriot, John Hancock. On the east, at about 
the same distance, was situated the dwelling of the late 
James Bowdoin, another patriot of the Revolution, a dis- 
tinguished scholar and philosopher, and who, by his firm- 



the whole embracing, with the stables, coach-houses and 



FAC-SIMILES OF THE MEMORIAL TABLETS 

THE Washington Family, i-ermanently placed upon tue marble floor ok the area in which the Statue of Washin-gton 

STANDS, within THE RAILING IN EliONT OF SAID StATUE, IN THE StATE HOLSE, IJOSTQN, MaSSACHVSETTS. 



IlEItli LIES INTEniiEU V UOUIE3 OF EUZAU : WASHISOTOS 

winnowE, WHO changed this life KOK IMOUTAI.LITIK 

Y 10 OF MAItCII I022' As ALSO V BODY OF KOIIKIIT 

Wasiiin(;tos cent: heu late iivsnAND second 

SOXNI? OF ROIIEHT WASHINGTON OF SOLOItAVR IN Y 
COVNTV OF NoKTII : Est; : WHO DEl'TED THIS LIFE Y 

in OF March 1022- after th;v lived lovingly togetikk 



^ 




THESE FAC-SIMILES OF THE MEMORIAL STONES OF 
THE WASHIXGTOX FAMILY, IN THE PARISH CHURCH 
OF lilUXGTOX, THE HUHIAL-l'LACE OF THE SPENCERS 
N'KAK ALTHORP, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, ENGLAND, WERE 
I'RESEXTEI) liY TH]' RIGHT HONORABLE EARL SPENCER 
Tn CHARLES SUMNER, OF MASSACHUSETTS, AND BY HIM 
OFFERED TO THE COMMONWEALTH 22 FEBRUARY, 186L 

UWRENCE WAS FATHEIt, AND l!()l!KI!T UNCLE, OF THE ENGLISH 
"iiUfiliVNT TO VIRGINIA, WHO WAS GREAT GRANDFATHER OF GEORGE 
"ASIIINGTOX. 





HERE-LiETH-Tl£-BODiOF-LAVRENCE 
WASHiNGTON-SONNE&^-HEiRE-OF 
ROBERT- WASHINGTON • OF-SOVLCRA£ 
iN-ThE-COVNliEOFNORTHAMTON 
ESQViER'WHO'MARiEDMARGARET 
ThE-ELDEST-DAVGHTER-OFWiLLiAM 
iBVTLER'GF-TEES-iN-TK-COVNTiE I 
OFSV5SEXE-ES0ViER-WHO-HAD-iSSV 
BY-I-ER-8SONNS-&,-9-DAVGHTERS 
WHiCHLAVRENCEDECESSEDTF£-13 
OFDECEMBER-A:DNi:)6l6 

T[OV-THAT-BY-CHANCE-ORCHOYCE 
GF-THis-HAST-SiGHT 

KNOW- LiFE-TO-DEATH-RESIGNES 
AS-DAYE-TO'NJGHT 

BVT'AS-ThESVNNS-RETOKNE 
REVIVES THE- DAYE 
SO-CHRiST-SHALL-VS 
THOVGH TVRNDETODVST-&CLAY 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 69 

ness in the critical period of 1786, contributed most 
efficiently to the preservation of order and tranquillity 
in the Commonwealth. 

The Hancock House, built A.D. 1737, and taken 
down in 1863, was one of the celebrities of Boston ; 
and no stranger who felt the patriotic impulse failed to 
pay it a visit. 

It stood in Beacon-street, very near the State House, 
fronting the south, presented a quaint and picturesque 
appearance, embosomed,asit was, with shrubs, evergreens, 
trees, and flowers. It was built of hewn stone, and raised 
about thirteen feet above the street, the ascent being 
through a garden. There it stood, beside its modern 
neighbors, like a venerable grandsire surrounded by his 
children's children, commanding respectful attention, and 
even admiration. The front was fifty-six feet in breadth, 
and it terminated in two lofty stories. Formerly there 
was a delightful garden behind the house, ascending grad- 
ually to the high lands in the rear. 

In the governor's time we are told that in front of the 
edifice " an hundred cows daily fed " on the Common. 

A brave place for hospitality has that house been in old 
times, when " the east wing formed a spacious hall, and 
the west wing was appropriated to domestic purposes; 
the whole embracing, with the stables, coach-houses and 



70 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

other offices, an extent of two hundred and twenty feet."' 
There was also a glacis, in the days when Thomas Han- 
cock, the governor's uncle, resided there ; but garden, 
glacis, stables, and coach-houses, have made way for streets 

The Boston Water-Works. — A short walk on Beacon 
Hill brings us to an enormous structure of massive granite 
masonry, which will, if the stranger knows not its uses, 
strike him with astonishment. It is not a jail, though it 
somewhat resembles one; nor is it a warehouse, nor a 
church. It is the great Beacon Hill Reservoir, into which 
flows, from Cochituate Lake, formerly called Long Pond, 
the water which supplies the city with the pure element. 
The dimensions of this huge cistern are, on Derne-street, one 
hundred and ninety-nine feet and three inches ; on Temple- 
street, one hundred and eighty-two feet and eleven inches ; 
on Hancock-strept, one hundred and ninety-one feet seven 
inches ; and on the rear of Mount Vernon-street, two 
hundred and six feet and five inches. From the founda- 
tion to the summit, exclusive of railing, it is on Derne- 
street sixty-six feet, and on the rear of Mount Vernon- 
street forty-three feet high. 

This building is an immense basin, or reservoir. It 
rests on arches of immense strength, fourteen and three 
fourths feet span. The basin holds 2,678,961 wine gal- 
lons of water. 

Two granite tablets are placed on the north side of th 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 71 



Reservoi?, with the following inscriptions ; 



BOSTON WATER-WORKS. 

BEGUN AUGUST, 1846. WATER INTRODUCED OCTOBER, 1848 

JOSIAH QUINCY, JK., Mayor. 

(NATHAN HALE, 
COMMISSIONEIIS, ^ JAMES F. BALDWIN, 
^THOMAS B. CURTIS. 



BOSTON WATER-WORKS. 

THE RESERVOIR COMPLETED NOVEMBER, 1849. 

JOHN P. BIGELOW, Mayor. 

f W. S. WHITWELL, East Drv. 
ENGINEERS, ^ E. S. CHESBROUGH, West Dit, 
^JOHN. B. JERVIS, CoNSULTiNQ. 



The Superintendent of the Reservoir and City Foun- 
tains, John Burr, Esq., has had sole charge of the same 
for nineteen years past. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BOSTON COMMON. OLD ELM. FBOG POND. 




Were we to be asked, What is the great feature of 
Boston city, we should assuredly reply, Boston Common. 

The parks of the British metropolis have not unaptly 
been termed the lungs of London. With equal appropri- 
ateness the Common of Boston may be styled the great 

72 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 73 

breatliing apparatus of Boston. In summer or in winter 
those forty-eight acres of undulating ground, green with 
grass or white with snow, constitute a favorite place of 
resort. And when the noble trees that abound there are 
thick with foliage, no more delightful promenade than 
those broad avenues beneath their interlacing boughs 
could well be imagined. 

A glance at the early history of the Common may not 
be uninteresting. 

"In 1634, commissioners were chosen to dispose of un- 
occupied lands. They were directed to leave out portions 
for new comers and the further benefits of the town. The 
Common was among the reserved portions, and became 
public property, as a training field and pasture. In 1833 
a city ordinance appeared, forbidding its use as a pasturage, 
and it has long since ceased to be a training field." 

The citizens of Boston have always been proud of their 
beautiful Common. Several times have attempts been 
made to encroach upon it, but public opinion in each case 
defeated the object, and it is not now probable that a single 
foot of it will be misappropriated. 

The American elm is celebrated abroad for its beauty, 
and our Common has extremely beautiful groves of these 
graceful trees, whose hanging boughs form arches on high, 
which, either in summer, autumn, or winter, attract gen- 
eral admiration for their fairv-like tracery — Nature's own 
7 



74 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

di-apeiy, woven by her most fantastic hands. Time and 
stoi'm have dealt hai-dly with some of them, and they 
have been felled and supplanted by others, where repair 
was impossible. The extreme hardness of the maUs has 
operated injuriously upon the roots of many of them, and 
canker worms have occasionally made too free among the 
branches ; but great and judicious care and expense have 
done much to remedy these evils ; and the full foliage of 
the Common, now shading the numerous paths with the 
magnificent garniture of their verdure, affords ample 
reward for years of intelligent husbandry. 

The richness of the soil on our Common has been one 
reason why the multitude of trees which decorate it have 
been so long preserved in vigor and beauty. In the sum- 
mer season the Common presents its most lovely aspect; 
all the malls are crowned with rich green canopies, and 
the carpet spread by Nature at man's feet is of the amplest 
and freshest verdure. The birds and squirrels froHc un- 
harmed amid the broad, ancient boughs, and the malls, 
which intersect the undulating surface of the lawn, add 
vastly to its ornate appearance. The cathedral-like arches 
which overtop the elm-lined malls are ever charming to 
the artistic eye ; and indeed it is a question with some 
whether they do not look as beautiful in their winter 
robes, when the network of spray-like twigs is frosted over 
with the fleece of snow, or a crystalline coating of ice 



BOSTON AND VICINITT. 7& 

glistens with px'ismatic splendors in the sunlight. Truly, 
the care which has been bestowed upon the Common has 
been amply repaid. 

Two of the walks in Boston were formerly designated 
by the names Great Mall and Little Mall. The 
Great Mall borders the eastern edge of the Common, and 
the Little Mall the eastern edge of the Granary or Park 
Street burying ground. The last named was planted witL 
English elms by Colonel Admo Paddock, in 1770. They 
are therefore more than eighty years old. The trees in 
the Great Mall were planted, as appears from the plans, 
between 1722 and 1729. Those that remain are therefore 
about one hundred and thirty years old. The trees on 
the Little Mall were a mixture of elms and buttonwoods. 
Mr. Paddock was a loyalist, left Boston in 1776, and set- 
tled in Nova Scotia, where his descendants stiU live. 

The Great Elm is one of the lions — perhaps the 
lion — of Boston Common. Still hale and strong, it 
stands about the centre of the green, and is supposed, 
from various data, to be upwards of two hundred 'years 
old. 

In 1825 it was sixty-five feet high, the circumference at 
thirty inches from the ground being twenty -one feet eight 
inches, and the spread of branches eighty-six feet. In 
1855 it was measured, and found to be seventy-two and a 
half feet in height ; height of first branch from the ground, 



76 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



twenty -two and a half feet ; girth four feet from the ground, 
seventeen feet ; average diameter of greatest spread of 
branches, one hundred and one feet. Tliis shows that the 
elm has grown considerably within the last quarter of a 
century. 

But this colossal plant lias more interesting features 
than its age or size, though they are great. 




SUMJrER ELM. 



There was once a powder magazine near this tree, on 
the little hill at whose foot it stands. This hill, also, dur- 
ing the siege of Boston, was the site of a British fortifica- 
tion, bombarded by Washington. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY.. 



77 



In the war of 1812 its existence was endangered by the 
encampment around it of American troops, destined to 
protect the tOAvn. It has often been exposed to injury by 
the custom of hanging and burning effigies upon its giant 
branches ; and many turbulent occasions, on Election and 
Lidependence days, have exposed the tree to violence. 



KL'~. ! i 




WINTER ElM. 



Severe tempests have at times threatened to annihilate 
this tree; and in 1831 or 1832 a violent storm separated 
four of its large limbs, and so far detached them that they 
rested partially upon the ground. They were raised and 

bolted together ; the bolts are still visible, and the branches, 

7* 



78 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

at the end of twenty-five years, appear to be perfectly 
united. In 1859 a large branch was blown off. 

For many years the interior of the trunk was rotten, 
and much of it had disappeared, from neglect ; but finally 
the spirit of improvement, which came upon the Common, 
extended to the great tree, and the edges of the aperture 
were protected, and the exterior covei^ed by canvas. The 
parts have thus been regenerated, and the opening filled 
and obliterated. 

Notwithstanding the years that have rolled over the 
veteran colossus, it still presents an asj^ect of grandeur 
which will ever be the admiration of the "beholder. Dr. 
Warren remarks, in his book upon the Great Tree, — 

This tree, therefore, we must venerate as a visible 
relic of the Indian Shawmut, for all its other native trees 
and groves have been long since prostrated. The frail 
and transient memorials of the aborigines have vanished ; 
even the hills of Trimountain cannot be distinguished ; 
and this native noble elm remains to present a substantial 
association of the existing with the former ages of Boston." 

A handsome iron fence now surrounds it, through which 
entrance is had by a gate. Flowers adorn the little circle 
enclosed at its foot, seeming to pay the homage of beauty 
to majesty ; and squirrels gambol among its branches, in 
which a shelter and food are provided for them. The fol- 
lowing inscription is on the fence : — 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 79 

THE OLD ELM. 
This tree has been standing 
here for an unknowii period. 
It is believed to have existed be- 
fore the settlement of Boston, be- 
ing fvdl grown in 1722. Exliibited 
marks of old age in 1792, and was 
nearly destroyed by a storm in 
1832. Protected by an iron 
fence in 1854. J. V. C. 
Smith, Mayor. 

The following lines, dedicated to the old Elm Tree on 
Boston Common, by Geo. E. Rice, originally appeared in 
the Saturday Evening Gazette. 

TO THE GREAT ELM TREE ON BOSTON COMMON. 

When first from mother Earth you sprung. 
Ere Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare sung, 
Or Puritans had come among 
The savages to loose each tongue 

In psalms and prayers. 
These forty acres, more or less, 
Now gayly clothed in Nature's dress, 
Where Yankees walk, and brag, and guess, 
Was but a " howling wilderness " 

Of wolves and bears. 

Say, did you start with the presenti- 
Ment that you'd e'er be the centre 
Of all that's kno^vn 



80 BOSTON AND VICINITT. 

About the sciences and arts ? 
For we are men of mighty parts, 
And strangers say that Boston hearts 
With pride are blowTi ; 

And fondly deem their httle state 
To be '■'■par excellence " the great, 

And look with pity 
And sore contempt on those who say 
That Europe boasts a town to-day 
That's not surpassed in every way 

By Boston City. 

What wondrous changes you have seen 
Since you put forth your primal green 

And tender shoot ; 
Three hundred years your life has spanned, 
Yet calm, serene, erect you stand. 
Of great renown throughout the land, 
Braced up with many an iron band, 
And showing marks of Time's hard hand 

From crown to root. 

You, when a slender sapling, saw 
The persecuted reach this shore. 

And in their turn 
Treat others as themselves were treated- 
To mete the measure that's been meted, 
And cheat if he has e'er been cheated. 

How does man yearn ! 

Of tales perchance devoid of truth, 
With which they would, in early youth, 
My heart appall, 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 81 

Was one the gossips used to tell 
About a witch so grim and fell, 
That here was hung for raising— well, 
It wasn't Saul. 

Since you beheld the light of day, 
A race of men has passed away — 

A warlike nation, 
Who, oft with fire water plied. 
Lost all their bravery and pride. 
And yielded to the rapid stride 

Of annexation. 

Behold, a mightier race appears, 
And high a vast republic rears 

Her giant features. 
And westward steadily we drive 
The few poor Indians who survive, 
And barely keep the race alive — 
Degenerate creatures. 

For are we not the mighty lords 
And masters of all savage hordes. 

In our opinion ? 
And when we with inferiors deal, 
'Tis well to use the iron heel. 
And make them wince, and writhe, and feel 

T^heir lords' dominion. 

You heard the first rebellious hum 
Of voices, and the fife and drum 
Of revolution, 



82 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

And heard the bells and welkin ring, 
"When they threw oif great George, their king, 
And much improved by that same thing 
Their constitution. 

And you still thrive and live to see 
The country prosperous and free, 

In spite of all 
The very sage prognostications 
Of prophets in exalted stations. 
Who could foresee the fate of nations, 

And said she'd fall. 

You've seen both the tremendous spread 
Of commerce, and of those it made 

Rich and ambitious, 
Who flaunt with parvenu's true pride, 
And in their sho'n'y coaches ride. 
With arms emblazoned on the side. 
Which any herald who descried 

Would deem flagitious. 

Majestic tree ! You've seen much worth 
From little Boston issue forth. 

And know some men 
Who love their kind, and give their store 
To help the suffering and the poor. 
Nor drive the beggar from their door. 
Heaven bless such hearts, and give them more, 

I pray again. 

And you shall see much more beside, 
Ere to your root, old Boston's pride, 
The axe is laid. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



83 



And long, I trust, the time will be, 
Ere mayor and council sit on thee, 
And find with unanimity 
That you're decayed ; 

For you are still quite hale and stanch. 
Though here and there perhaps a branch 

Is slightly rotten ; 
And you will stand and hold your sway 
When he who pens this rhyme to-day 
Shall mingle with the common clay, 

And be forgotten. 




The Frog Pond, now callecl " Cochituate Lake by 
super-genteel people, or, as it has been called, " Quincy 



84 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

Lake," is situated near the Old Elm Tree, whose roots it 
has moistened for so many years. The original form has 
long been changed, and the natural pond in which the boys 
fished for minnows and horn-pout is now supplied from 
Cochituate Lake ; and in one portion a fountain sends up 
its sparkling waters to the height of over ninety feet. A 
variety of jets are connected with it at pleasure ; and 
nothing can be more charming than the effect produced 
on a summer's evening, when bands discourse sweet 
music, and the strains blend with the sound of falhng 
waters : the effect is inexpressibly beautiful. Then is the 
time to see Boston Common and its tuiy silver lake. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PUBLIC GARDEN. — PROVIDENCE DEPOT. — PUBLIC 
LIBRARY. 

The Public Garden adjoins the Common, and con- 
tains nearly twenty acres of picturesque and beautiful 
grass-plots, gravel-walks, flowers, and shrubbery, enclos- 
ing a beautiful pond, spanned by a light and elegant 
bridge ; and, like the Common, is freely open to the 
public. Close by, on Pleasant Street, is 

The Providence Railroad Depot,* a fine brick 
structure, and rather striking in its architecture. The 
interior arrangements are good, and unusually convenient. 
This road is forty-three miles in length, and, with the 
Stonington and other railroads, constitutes the "Shore 
Route " to New York. The branch roads uniting with 
this are the Dedham, Stoughton, Taunton, and Attleboro' 
roads. 

Cars leave the depot in Boston for Providence daily, 

* Alterations have been made in several of the railroad depots since the 
wood-cuts were engraved. 

85 8 



S6 



BOSjrON AND VICINITY. 



stopping at Roxbury, which is two miles from the city, 
Jamaica Plain, three and a half miles. 

Canton, fourteen miles from Boston, is a beautifully- 
diversified and picturesque town, watered by the Neponset 
River, which, with the numerous ponds in its vicinity, 
gives it an extensive water power. The railroad bridge 
which crosses the river at Canton is one of the finest 
pieces of masonry in the country. It is of hewn granite, 
is six hundred and twelve feet long, and elevated sixty- 




three feet above the foundation, resting on six arches, with 
a succession of arches on top. Its cost exceeded ninety 
thousand dollars. 

Sharon, seventeen and a half miles from Boston, occu- 
pies the highest land between Boston and Providence. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



87 



Its natural scenery is exceedingly fine. Mashapoag Pond, 
a beautiful sheet of water over a mile in length, rests upon 
a bed of iron ore. During the low stages of the water, 
the ore is extracted by machines made for the purpose. 
Fishing and pleasure pai'ties frequent this pond in the 
summer season. 

Mansfield is twenty-four miles, Attleboro' thuty-one 
miles, Pawtucket thii-ty-nme miles, and Providence forty- 
three and a half miles from Boston. 




The Public Library building of the city of Boston 
is situated on Boylston Street, opposite the Common, 
and is constructed of brick : the ornamental portions are 



88 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

of sandstone. The whole building is strictly fire-proof. 
It was designed by Mr. Charles Kirby, and is eighty two 
feet in front, one hundred and twenty-eight feet deep, and 
two stories in height, besides the basement. The lower, 
or basement, story is situated below the level of the side- 
walk. 

The first story of the building contains the large hall 
of entrance, which opens directly into the room for dis- 
tribution, occupying the central part of the story. It 
is intended to serve also as a conversation room. This 
room is connected with a large hall in the rea$ of the 
building, having a gallery and twenty alcoves, calculated 
to contain about forty thousand of the books most fre- 
quently demanded for use. On the front of the building, 
and entered only from the room of delivery, are two read- 
ing rooms, one on the east for ladies, and one on the west, 
amply supplied with the periodicals of the day, for gen- 
eral use. 

The second or principal story is one hall, approached 
by visitoi's only by the staircase in the entrance hall. 
This hall, which by calculation will contain more than two 
hundred thousand volumes, has ten alcoves on each of its 
sides, and the same number in each of its galleries, mak- 
ing sixty alcoves in all. Each alcove contains ten ranges 
of shelves, and each range ten shelves. The object of 
this decimal arrangement of shelves is to simplify all the 
details connected with the library. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 89 

The Library was organized in 1852. The building 
was commenced in 1855, and was dedicated on the first 
day of January, 1858. It cost, together with the grounds, 
about $363,000. An annual appropriation of about 
$25,000 is made by the city for its maintenance. It pos- 
sesses also permanent funds prese'nted and bequeathed for 
the special purpose of purchasing books, amounting at 
present to nearly $100,000. 

At the date of the last report, the Library contained 
upwards of 116,000 books, besides pamphlets, maps, and 
other articles. It has already become the second in size 
among the libraries of the country, and is but little be- 
hind the largest. The average of lendings of books for 
home use was 663 a day the year round. It is stated that 
sometimes more than 2,000 persons a day visit the Library 
for literary purposes, besides those who go from mere cu- 
riosity. The building is open from nine, a.m. to ten, p.m. 
every day. The privileges of the institution are entirely 
free to all the citizens of Boston. The institution has 
from the first met the favor of the people •; and it has been 
cherished more and more as its benefits have been widely 
known and enjoyed. 

The valuable New-England Library bequeathed in 
1758 to the Old South Church, by the Rev. Thomas 
Prince, has lately been transferred to the Public Library. 
8* 



CHAPTER X. 

WORCESTER DEPOT AND ROAD. OLD COLONY AND 

FALL RIVER DEPOT AND ROAD. 

Leaving the Public Library, a stroll through Boylston 
Street, (passing the spot where the Liberty Tree once 
grew,) down Beach Street, brings us to The Boston and 
Worcester Eailroad Depot. It is a very plain 




BOSTON AND VICINITY. 91 

brick building, but covering a large area of ground, facing 
on Kneeland Street, with entrances and exits on Kneeland, 
Albany, and Lincoln Streets. The accommodations are 
spacious, and tlife arrangements so well made that the 
sti'anger, on his arrival, is not in danger of being pulled 
in pieces by officious hackmen, for here each has his place 
and must keep it. The vicinity of this depot presents a 
busy scene on the arrival and departure of the New York 
and Albany trains, and it is well worth the walk to wit- 
ness it. The branch roads uniting with this road are, the 
Brookline, Newton Lower Falls, and Saxonville ; the Mil- 
lord branch, from South Framingham depot to Milford ; 
the Millbury branch, from Grafton to Millbury ; and the 
Agricultural, from South Framingham to Marlboro'. 

Brighton, the first stopping place on this route, five 
mile* from Boston, is a pleasant towm on the south side 
of Charles River. It is noted for its cattle market, the 
largest in New England. "Wednesday is the market-dj^, 
when buyers and sellers congregate in large numbers to 
traffic in live stock. 

Newton, formerly an agricultural town, has of late 
become very popular as a suburban residence. Several 
beautiful villages, adorned with elegant country-seats, 
and inhabited by a quiet and respectable population, 
have arisen on the Worcester and Air Line Railroads 
passing through the town. At Newton Centre is a flour- 



92 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

ishing Theological Seminary. Upper Falls and Lower 
Falls are manufactnring villages of some importance. 
There are seven railroad depots in the town. The 
scenery of this and adjacent towns on the Charles River 
is exquisite. 

Needham is now quite a manufacturing town, having 
several paper mills, a chocolate mill, a coach and car 
manufactory, and manufactories of shoes, hats, &c. It 
has also quarries of stone, which are becoming yearly 
more valuable. 

Natick, seventeen miles distant from the city, (called by 
the Indians " the place of hills,") is watered in part by 
Charles River ; it contains several delightful ponds, well 
stored with fish. The southern part of Long Pond is in 
this town, and is seen from the cars while passing. The 
first Indian church in New England was established here 
in 1660, under the direction of the apostle Ehot. 

Framinghara, twenty-one miles from Boston, has the 
Sudbury River passing through its centre. Its fishing, 
fowling, and other sports make it an agreeable place of 
resort. 

Hopkinton is twenty-four miles from Boston, and Graf- 
ton thirty-eight miles. The Western, Nashua, Norwich, 
and several other routes pass over this road, and through 
Worcester, to gain Boston. 

Not far from this depot stands The Old Colony 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



93 



AND Fall River Depot, at the corner of Kneeland and 
South Streets. It is a plain, substantial building of brick. 




and very convenient. This road was opened for travel 
on the 19th of November, 1845, and extends from Boston 
to Fall River, and from Braintree to Plymouth. The 
branch roads connecting with it are the South Shore, Cape 
Cod, Milton, jMiddleboro', and Taunton roads. 

South Boston, the first stopping place, was formerly a 
part of Dorchester, and is connected with Boston by two 
bridges, and also by the Old Colony and Fall River Rail- 



94 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

road. Dorchester, four miles from Boston,. lies on Dor- 
chester Bay, in Boston harbor. It is mider a high state 
of cultivation — fruits, vegetables, and flowers being raised 
here in great abundance ; and this town, m consequence of 
the facilities for reacliing Boston, has become a favorite 
place of residence for many of its citizens. 

Neponset Village, five miles from Boston, situated in 
the town of Dorchester, is on the Neponset River, near 
its mouth. It has considerable trade, and the population 
is rapidly increasing. 

Quincy, eight miles from Boston, is situated on Quincy 
Bay, in Boston harbor. The village, which is built on an 
elevated plain, is remarkable for its neatness and beauty. 
The ancestral estate of the Quincy family, one of the 
most beautiful residences in New England, is in this town. 
In a church in the village, erected in 1828 at a cost of 
forty thousand doUai's, is a beautiful monument to the 
memory of John Adams and his wife. This town sup- 
plies the " Quincy granite," noted for its durabihty and 
beauty. Immense quantities are annually quarried and 
sent to various parts of the United States. 

The first railway constructed in this country was in 
Quincy, it being a short line of four miles, completed in 
1827. It was built for the purpose of conveying granite 
quarried in the Granite Hills to vessels lying in the Ne- 
ponset River, and still remains in use. Of course horse 
power only was used. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 95 

North Braintree is ten and a half miles from Boston, 
Bramtree eleven and a half, South Weymouth fifteen, 
North Abington eighteen, Abington nineteen and a quar- 
ter. South Abington twenty-one. North Hanson twenty- 
three and a quarter, Hanson twenty-four and three quar- 
ters, Plympton thirty, Kingston thhty -three. 

Plymouth, the terminus of the Old Colony road, is 
thirty-seven miles from Boston, and is celebrated as being 
the landing place of the "Pilgrims," who disembarked 
here on the 22d of December, 1620. It is the oldest 
town in New England. Pilgrim Hall, the building most 
worthy of notice, contains a valuable painting represent- 
ing the landing of the Pilgrims from the " Mayflower." It 
is thirteen by sixteen feet, and is valued at three thousand 
dollars. The cabinet of the Pilgrim Society contains 
many valuable antiquities. From Burying Hill, in the 
rear of the town, which is elevated one hundred and sixty 
feet above the level of the sea, is a fine view of the vil- 
lage, the harbor, and shipping beyond, with the coast for 
feome miles in extent. " Plymouth Rock," a deeply inter- 
esting spot to New Englanders, is on Water Street, near 
the termination of North Street. The town contains 
about two hundred ponds : Billington Sea, one of the 
largest, is about six miles in circumference. It is two 
miles south-west of the village, and contains a good 
supply of pickerel and perch. 



96 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



The National Monument to the Forefathers, a 
description of which we take from the Boston Almanac of 
1856, is to be erected here. The design comprises an 
octagonal pedestal, eighty-three feet high, upon which 
stands a figure of Faith, rising to the height of seventy 
feet above the platform of the pedestal, so that the whole 




monument will rise one hundred and fifty-three feet above 
the earth upon which it rests. Faith is represented as 
standing upon a rock, holding in her left hand an open 
Bible, while the other hand is uplifted towards heaven. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 97 

From the four smaller faces of the main pedestal project 
wings or buttresses, upon which are seated figures em- 
blematic of the principles upon which the Pilgrim Fathers 
proposed to found their commonwealth. These are Moral- 
ity, Law, Education, and Freedom. The sides of the 
seats upon which they sit are decorated Avith niches, in 
wliich are statues appropriate to the figures above. 

Upon the larger faces of the mam pedestal are panels, 
wliich are intended to contain records of the names of the 
Pilgrims of the Mayflower, the events of the voyage, the 
prominent events in the early history of the colony, and 
the events which occurred previous to their departure from 
Delft Haven. Upon smaller panels, placed below these, 
are to be inscribed events connected with the Pilgrim So- 
ciety and the erection of the monument, with an appro- 
priate dedication. Upon the faces of the wing pedestals 
are panels designed to contain alto-reliefs of the departure 
from Delfl Haven, the signing of the social compact in the 
cabin of the Mayflower, the landing at Plymouth, and the 
first treaty with the Indians. 

In the main pedestal is a chamber twenty-four feet in 
diameter, and from the floor of this a stone staircase leads 
to the platform upon which stands the principal figure. 

The pedestal is eighty feet in diameter at the base, and 
the sitting figures upon the wings are forty feet high in 
their position. The figures in the panels are eighteen feet 
9 



98 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

in height. In magnitude the monument will far exceed 
any monumental structure of modern times, and will 
equal those stupendous works of the Egyptians which for 
forty centuries have awed the world by their grandeur. 
The figure of Faith will be larger than any known statue 
excepting that of the great Ramses, now overthrown, and 
the Colossus of Rhodes ; and the sitting figures are nearly 
equal in size to the two statues of Ramses in the plain of 
Luxor. The architect of the monument is Mr. Hammatt 
Billings, and it is to be erected at Plymouth under the 
auspices of the Pilgrim Association. 



CHAPTER XI. 

BOSTON THEATRE. MELODEON. 

The Boston Theatre is situated on Washington and 
Mason Streets. The enti'ance-front, on the former, is a 
simple three-story building, with no attempt at architec- 
tural display. The auditorium is nearly circular in form, 
about ninety feet in diameter, and in height about fifty- 
four feet. The proscenium-boxes on either side of the 
stage are handsomely draped. Around the auditorium 
above are the first and second tiers, and the gallery ; in 
front, below the first tier, or dress-circle, is a light bal- 
cony containing two rows of seats. 

In the parquet and balcony, there are iron-framed chairs, 
cushioned on the back, seat, and arms ; the first and sec- 
ond tiers are furnished with oaken-framed sofas, covered 
with crimson plush. The walls of the auditorium are of 
a rose-tint ; the fronts of the balcony and the second cir- 
cle are elaborately ornamented ; and the frescoed ceiling 
embraces in its design allegorical representations of the 

99 



100 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



twelve months. The grand j)romenade saloon is 46 feet 
long, 26 feet wide, and 26 feet high, finished with orna- 
mented walls and ceiling, and elegantly furnished. The 
corridors extend entirely round the auditorium. 




The stage side of the theatre is on Mason Street, and 
the doors and arches, breaking the sameness of the brick 
wall, comprise a passage leading to the carpenter's shop 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



101 



and steam works, a set of double doors for the introduc- 
tion of horses, carriages, &c., should such ever be required 
for the purposes of the stage, a private door for the use 
of the actors, and an audience entrance at the corner of 
the building nearest West Street. 




Close to the entrance on Washington Street is the Me- 
lodeon, a small, comfortable hall, used for religious pur- 
poses, panoramic and other exhibitions. 

9* 



CHAPTER XII. 

MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. LOWELL INSTI- 
TUTE. — OPERA-HOUSE. — BRATTLE-STREET CHURCH. — 
BOWDOIN SQUARE. 

The Mercantile Library Association occupies the 
second floor in Mercantile Building, at the corner of 
Hawley and Summer Streets ; the main entrance being 
from the latter. The rooms occupied by this Association 
are divided as follows, — Reading-room, Library, and 
Lecture-hall. 

The library is one of the finest in the city : it contains 
at present 18,000 volumes. New books are constantly 
added, and in quantities to suit the demands of the mem- 
bers. A fire which occurred here about three years 
ago destroyed many valuable volumes. In this library 
may be found many books which cannot be seen else- 
where, and which are not allowed to be taken from the 
library. Polite and able librarians are in constant at- 
tendance day and evening, and are always ready to give 
information to visitors. The reading-room is well 
stocked with daily and weekly newspapers, reviews, and 
periodicals ; and comfortable arrangements have been 
made for reading. 

103 



104 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

Besides the facilities for gathering news, there are 
other attractions to interest visitors. Facing you, as you 
enter, hangs a fine copy of Stuart's Washington, a gift 
from the Hon. Edward Everett ; and around the walls 
of the reading-room and the hall are suspended por- 
traits of Webster, Hamilton, Vespucius, Columbus, and 
some of our much-honored citizens of Boston ; viz., 
Thomas H. Perkins, Peter C. Brooks, David Sears, Wil- 
liam Gray, Thomas C. Amory, and Robert G. Shaw. 

By the terms of the constitution, any. person engaged 
in mercantile pursuits, who is more than fourteen years 
of age, may become a member of the Association by the 
payment of two dollars annually. Persons not engaged 
in mercantile pursuits may become subscribers, and be 
entitled to all the privileges of members, except that of 
voting, by the payment of two dollars ; and ladies may 
become subscribers on the same terms. 

Mercantile Hall will accommodate about seven hun- 
dred persons, is centrally located, easy of access, and 
lighted from the ceiling. It is well ventilated, and fur- 
nished with two ante-rooms on each side of the rostrum. 
It is a pleasant, cheerful room, and remarkably well 
adapted by its construction for a lecture or concert room ; 
and is in much demand for these purposes. 

In this hall, weekly entertainments, either of declama- 
tion, debate, or composition, are given for the benefit of 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 105 

the members, and Avhich are always interesting, and lis- 
tened to by crowded audiences. 

Prominent among the attractions and ornaments of the 
hall, stands the marble statue of the " Wounded Indian," 
by Peter Stephenson. This truly American work, aside 
from its excellence as a work of art, is celebrated as be- 
ing the first statue executed in the marble of this coun- 
try, and also as being the only piece of sculpture on 
exhibition at the World's Fair at London, that was de- 
signed and completed in the United States. A course of 
lectures is delivered before the Association each winter, 
by talented speakers. 

This institution is the oldest of all the Mercantile- 
Library Associations in the country ; having been founded 
in March, 1820. Among the many institutions founded 
in this city for intellectual, moral, and social improve- 
ment, none are exerting a more beneficial influence, or 
are more firmly established in the confidence of the people. 

The erection of a building which shall suitably accom- 
modate the wants of this growing institution has long 
been agitated. A building-fund has been started, the 
amount of which at present is $16,000. It is proposed 
to raise it to $50,000 ; and, should the promises of Bos- 
ton's generous merchants be fulfilled, double that sum 
will be at the disposal of the Association within a few 
years. 



106 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

The Lowell Institute, with an entrance from Wash- 
ington Street, is the next object of interest. It was founded 
by John Lowell, Jr., Esq., for the support of regular courses 
of popular and scientific lectures. The sum bequeathed 
for this purpose amounts to about two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. By his will he provides for the main- 
tenance and support of public lectures on natural and 
revealed religion, physics and chemistry, with their appli- 
cation to the arts, and on geology, botany, and other use- 
ful subjects. These lectures are all free. The season for 
delivering them is from October to April, during which 
period four or five courses (of twelve lectures each) are 
usually delivered. Mr. Lowell died at Bombay in March, 
1836, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. 

Opera House is situated in Province House Court. 
The building is very old ; and when Massachusetts was 
a province, the colonial governors resided here. The 
king's coat of arms, that once adorned this building, is 
still treasured in the rooms of the Massachusetts Histor- 
ical Society, and seems to have suffered more from the 
tooth of time than the stanch old building it once adorned. 
Perhaps the smoke from Lexington and Concord dimmed 
its bright colors, tarnished its gilding, and caused it to 
be laid aside forever. The walls of this old house, that 
once echoed with kings' decrees, eloquent speeches, and 
loyal toasts, now ring with songs of negro minstrels. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 107 

Brattle Street Church stands in Brattle Square. 
The first house of worship, a wooden building, was taken 
down in May, 1772, to make room for the present one, 
whicli was built upon the same spot, and consecrated July 
25, 1773. In the front wall, neai- a window, may be seen 
the veritable cannon ball shot from Washington's camp in 
Cambridge, at the time Boston was m possession of the 
British. 

Proceeding westerly from Court Street, in whose vicini- 
ty, fronting on Howard Street, is the Howard Athenseum, 
occupying the spot where once stood the house in which 
Governor Eustis died, we enter Boavdoin Square. Not 
long ago, it was environed by the extensive grounds, and 
adorned by the stately, old-fashioned mansions, of those 
eminent merchants, the Coolidges, Pratt, Lyman, and 
Parkman. They have been eiFaced by the march of im- 
provement, and are succeeded by the attractive Revere 
House, the commodious Coolidge Block, Bowdoin Square 
Church, and other less conspicuous edifices, erected for 
the accommodation of spirited and emulous tradesmen. 
The Square is no longer the centre of the refined hospi- 
tality and home comfort of old Boston, but has been 
transmuted into a centre, from which spread and radiate 
the tracks of numerous horse railroads. Instead of quiet, 
private, and stately residences, we encounter the activity 
of spacious hotels, well-stocked shops, and crowded cars 



108 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



Public accommodation, here as elsewhere in the metropo- 
lis, has removed ancient landmarks, and substituted the 
useful for the ornamental. 




CHAPTEK XIII. 

LOWELL DEPOT. EASTERN RAILROAD DEPOT. FITCH- 
BURG DEPOT. COPP'S HILL. MAINE DEPOT. 

The Boston and Lowell Depot, in Causeway 
Street, is a plain brick building, with no pretensions to 
architectural elegance. The length of the road proper is 
twenty-six miles. The branch road connecting is the 
Woburn Branch. The towns passed through on the road 
to Lowell are, — 

East Cambridge, a flourishing place, with many exten- 
sive manufactories, of which the glass works are the most 
important. 

Somerville, three miles distant. 

Medford, five miles from Boston, is at the head of navi- 
gation on the Mystic River, and noted for its ship building. 

Woburn, ten miles, has a varied and pleasing aspect, 
and contains some beautiful farms. Horn Pond, in this 
110 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



Ill 



town, is a delightful sheet of water, surrounded by ever- 
greens, and is so remarkable for its rural beauties as to 
attract many visitors from a distance. 




Wilmington is fifteen miles, Billerica nineteen miles, 
Billerica Mills twenty-two miles, and Lowell twenty-six 
miles from Boston. 

The Eastern Railroad Depot, which is built of 
brick, stands on Causeway Street, at the foot of Friend 
and Canal Streets. The length of the road to Ports- 
mouth is fifty -six miles, or to Portland one hundi'ed and 



112 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



seven miles. On the way to Portsmouth the following 
towns are passed through : — 

Lynn, nine miles distant, is noted for its shoe trade. 




Salem, sixteen miles, was formerly engaged in the East 
India trade, but has declined in commercial importance, 
most of its shipping having been removed to Boston, 
although continuing to be owned in Salem. The Museum 
of the East India Marine Society is well worth a visit, for 
which tickets of admission can be procured gratis, on ap- 
plication. It is remarkable for the variety and extent of 
its natural and artificial curiosities, collected from every 
part of the world. The road passes tlu-ough a tunnel 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 113 

built under E^sex and Washington Streets, and is thence 
carried over a bridge of considerable length to Beverly. 

Beverly, sixteen miles from Boston, is connected with 
Salem by a bi-idge across the North River fifteen hundred 
feet in length. 

Wenham is twenty-two miles, Ipswich twenty-seven 
miles, Eowley thirty-one miles, Newburyport thirty-six 
miles. The celebrated George Whitefield died in this 
town in September, 1770. Salisbury Beach is thirty- 
eight miles, Seabrook forty-two miles, Hampton forty-six 
miles, and Portsmouth fifty-six miles from Boston. The 
branch roads connecting with this road are the Saugus, 
Marblehead, South Reading, Gloucester, Essex, and Ames- 
bury branches. 

The FiTCHBURG Depot fronts on Causeway Street, at 
the corner -of Haverhill Street. The building, which is 
three hundred and sixteen feet long, ninety-six feet wide, 
and two stories high, is of Fitchburg granite, and one of 
the handsomest depots in this country. Several roads 
unite with this road, and the Lexington and West Cam- 
bridge, Watertown and Marlboro', Peterboro' and Shirley 
branches ; and the Worcester and Nashua, and Stony 
Brook Railroads connect at Groton Junction. 

Charlestown, the first place reached after crossing the 

viaduct over Charles River, is built on a peninsula formed 

by the Charles and Mystic Rivers, and is connected with 
10* 



114 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



Boston by two public bridges, by one Avith Clielsea and 
Maiden, over the Mystic, and with Cambridge by a bridge 
over Charles River.^ 

Somerville is three miles, Waltham ten miles, Concord 




twenty miles, Groton thirty-five miles, and Fitchburg fifty 
miles from Boston. 

Copp's Hill, not far from the Fitchburg Depot, was 
formerly called Snow Hill. It came into the possession 
of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company ; and 
when, in 1775, they were forbidden by General Gage to 
parade on the Common, they went to this, their own 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



115 



ground, and drilled in defiance of his threats. The fort, 
or battery, that was built there by the British, just before 
the "battle of Bunker Hill, stood near the brow of the hill, 
adjoining the bui'ying-ground. The remains of many 
eminent men repose in this little cemetery. Close by the 
entrance is the vault of the Mather family, covered by a 
plain oblong structure of brick, three feet high and about 
six feet long, upon which is laid a heavy brown stone 
slab, with a tablet of slate, bearing the following inscrip- 
tion : — 




The Reverend Doctors Increase, Cotton, and Samuel Mather were 
interred in this vault. 

Increase died August 27, 1723, m. 84. 
Cotton " Feb. 13, 1727, " 65. 
Samuel " Jan. 27, 1785, " 79. 



The whole is surrounded by a neat iron raiHng. 



116 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



The Boston and Maine Railroad Depot fronts 
on Haymarket Square. It is a fine large brick building, 
two stones high, and is more centrally located than 'any 
other depot in the city. This road is seventy-four miles 
long, and reaches to Portland. The cars pass through 
Charlestown, which is distant one mile, Maiden, four 





m, fo.*^-t 



III 







miles, South Reading, ten miles, Reading, twelve miles, 
Wilmington, eighteen miles, Andover, twenty-three miles, 
Lawrence, twenty-six miles, North Andover, twenty- 
eight miles, Bradford, thirty -two miles, Haverhill, thirty- 
three miles, Exeter, fifty miles, Dover, sixty-eight miles, 
and Portland, one hundred and eleven miles. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

MASSACHTJSETTS MEDICAL COLLEGE. — MASSACHUSETTS 

GENERAL HOSPITAL. WARREN MUSEUBI OF NATURAL 

HISTORY. M'LEAN INSANE ASYLUM. CITY JAIL. 

EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY. 

The Massachusetts Medical College is a plain 
brick biiikliog, situated near the hospital, in North 
Grove Street, and is the medical school of Harvard Uni- 
versity. It is capable of accommodating about two hun- 
dred students in the lecture-rooms. 

Lectures are delivered during the winter months, be- 
ginning on the first Wednesday in November, and contin- 
uing seventeen weeks. Private instruction is also given 
by the professors during the month preceding, and for 
four months following, the winter courses. 

In a large hall, in the upper part of the building, is 
the Warren Anatomical Museum. This fine cabinet, 
one of the largest in the country, and used for illustrat- 
ing the lectures at the Medical College, was commenced 
during the professorship of Dr. John Warren, the first 
professor of anatomy in Harvard College : the chief col- 

117 



118 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

lections, however, were made by his son and successor, 
Dr. John C. Warren, by whom it was presented, in 1847, 
to the college, with a fund sufficient for its maintenance. 
It contains a great number of original specimens pre- 
pared by Dr. Warren, and by his numerous friends and 
assistants. It is also rich in preparations of morbid 
bones, collected, for the most part, in Paris, by Dr. J. 
Mason Warren, in 1832, who has also added many other 
valuable specimens to it. In 1849, it was still further 
increased by the donation, by Dr. Warren, of the greater 
part of the cabinet which had belonged to the Phreno- 
logical Society. There are now about 2,750 specimens 
in the museum ; and a detailed catalogue of them has 
been prepared for publication by its present zealous cu- 
rator. Prof. J. B. S. Jackson, who has spared no time 
or labor in enlarging and classifying the collection, so as 
to make it one of the most valuable for study in America. 

The museum Avas open to the public for two or three 
summers, at stated hours, and fully advertised ; but there 
was not a sufficient number of visitors to warrant a con- 
tinuance. Any respectable person, however, by making 
application at the college, at the proper time, can get a 
permit for admission. 

Massachusetts General Hospital, Allen Street, 
is a beautiful structure of white granite, with terraces in 
front, and walks shaded by a growth of beautiful elms, 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



119 



Ou one side, it commands a view of the river, which, ia 
summer, gives it an atmosphere unequalled in Boston. 




This institution was first suggested by a circular letter 
to the public from Dr. James Jackson and Dr. John C. 
Warren, in 1810. Subscriptions having been collected, 
mainly by the efforts of these gentlemen, it was opened 
in 1821. Shortly before, the McLean Asylum, a branch 
of it situated in Somerville, began to receive patients. 

The physicians and surgeons attached to it being 
among the most eminent in the profession, and the trus- 
tees, who have always kept a strict watch over it, being 
gentlemen of Boston, Avell known, and distinguished in 
the various walks of life, have been the means of its 
attracting patients, not only from all New England, and 
the Western States, but also from Canada and the Brit- 
ish Provinces. 



120 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

In 1846, the fii^t operation on a patient under the in- 
fluence of ether, was performed there by Dr. John C. 
Warren, followed by the other surgeons of the hospital, 
— Drs. George Hay ward, S. D. Townsend, J. Mason 
Warren, H. J. Bigelow, and Samuel Parkmaa. These 
experiments being supported by the influence of the visit- 
ing physicians, consulting board, and trustees, together 
with the principal medical men of Boston, gave it a solid 
guaranty to the confidence of the public ; and its use was 
shortly adopted throughout the civilized world. 

It is a remarkable fact, that although ether has been 
administered fifteen or twenty thousand times in this 
institution, in all kinds of surgical and medical eases, 
yet not a single death, and what is more remarkable, so 
far as is known, no permanent injury, has resulted from 
its use. 

The surgical opei'aiious, since the introduction of ether, 
have been greatly increased ; patients who formerly pre- 
ferred to take the risk of dying rather than undergo a 
painful surgical operation, now submitting to it cheerful- 
ly, their terrors being relieved ; and many surgical ope- 
rations being permitted which would not be justified with- 
out it. AVithin the last few years even, notwithstand- 
ing the opening of another large hospital in this city, 
the surgical operations have increased fou];'fold, and now 
amount to four or five hundred in the course of a year. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 121 

The hospital is open at all times to cases of sudden 
accident. During the four months of medical lectures 
in winter, a surgical visit is made on Saturdays, at ten 
o'clock ; surgical operations at eleven ; at which the med- 
ical students, and all physicians in good standing, are 
permitted to attend. During the remainder of the year, 
the surgical visits are made on Wednesdays and Satur- 
days at ten o'clock, both for physicians and students ; 
surgical operations at eleven. 

The folloiving are the Rules of the Hospital, both for the admission 
of the patients, and the visits of their friends. 

Applications for admission of patients must be made to the 
resident physician, at the hospital, on any day of the week, Sun- 
day excepted, between nine and ten o'clock, A.M.' In urgent 
cases, however, application may be made at other times. The 
patient, if able, should in all cases appear at the hospital in per- 
son ; if unable, or living at a distance, application must be made 
in writing, addressed to the resident physician of the hospital, 
by the attending physician of the patient, accompanied by a 
full description of the case, and, when a free bed is desired, by 
a statement of the pecuniary circumstances of the patient. 

The price of board varies from S4.50 to $25.00 per week. 
Five weeks' board must be advanced upon entering (any bal- 
ance due being refunded), or an obligation with surety for its 
payment must be furnished. Benjamin S. Shaw, M.D., is the 
resident physician. 

Admission of Visitors. — Relatives may be admitted to visit 
patients in the wards on each day of the week, Sunday except- 
ed, from halfrpast eleven to half-past twelve o'clock ; but no pa- 
tient in any ward can receive more than one visitor a day. 
11 



122 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

No visitor can be allowed to bring any article of food or liquor 
to any patient, unless specially permitted by the attending phy- 
sician ; and then such article must be deposited with the nurse 
for the use of the patient. 

WARREN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 

t 

92 CHESTNUT STREET. INCORPORATED FEBRUART, 1858. 

This building, which is fire-proof, contains many 
unique specimens of great value, among which is the 
most perfect specimen of the skeleton of the great mas- 
todon in existence ; discovered in 1845, near the North 
River, at Newburg, and purchased in 1846 by Dr. John 
C. Warren. 

The building is composed of two large halls, a smaller 
one, and an entry. The lower hall contains, first, the 
skeleton of the mastodon ; at the side of it, and for the 
purpose of comparison, is that of the elephant Pizarro, 
one of the largest elephants ever brought to this country, 
together Avith that of a horse. The room also contains 
one or two specimens of the mastodon which have not 
been articulated, and a great number of the heads and 
teeth of this animal at diflTerent periods of life. There 
is also the head of a whale, and casts of beads of vari- 
ous animals from the British Museum, among which are 
those of fossil heads of elephants from the Himalaya 
Mountains. Around the room is arranged a specimeu 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 123 

of the fossil skeleton of the zeuglodon cetoides, sixty- 
feet loug, of great antiquity. 

There are other skeletons of the different kinds of 
monkeys, and part of the skeleton, with the stuflPed skin, 
of a gorilla. 

In the entry are slabs containing the fossil impressions 
of gigantic birds, and of other large animals. The story 
above contains the collections belonging, for the most 
part, to Dr. J. Mason Warren, who is constantly adding 
to them. They consist of large collections of crania 
from all parts of the world, both human and compara- 
tive ; many specimens in papier mache, from Auzoux, 
of Paris ; a skeleton of the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, 
with the stuffed skins of the male and female. Here is, 
also, the head, heart, and brain of the distinguished 
Spurzheim, and a cast of his face, taken immediately 
after death, by Dr. Winslow Lewis ; and an original pic- 
ture of him, by Fisher. The interesting collection of 
Peruvian mummies and crania, brought by John H. 
Blake, Esq., from ancient Peruvian cemeteries near 
Arica, are deposited in this room. Some of these cra- 
nia, with others in the collection, are described in the 
valuable work of Dr. Daniel Wilson, on " Prehistoric 
Man." In the smaller room is a collection of anatomi- 
cal preparations, illustrative of healthy and morbid anat- 
omy ; also the casts of the enormous eggs of the gigantic 



124 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



birds from New Zealand and New Holland, — the epyor- 
nis and the diaornis ; also many geological specimens of 
interest. Dr. J. Mason Warren is tlie president, and Mr. 
Charles Lyman is treasiu'er. 

The museum is open to visitors on Thursdays, through- 
out the year, from eleven, a.m., to four, p.m. 

The New City Jail is located on Chai-les Street, oq 
land reclaimed from the ocean, about one hundred feet 
north of Cambridge Street, between that street and the 
Medical College. 




The Jail consists of a centre octagonal building having 
four wings radiating from the centre. The main building 
is seventy feet square, and eighty-five feet in height. It 
is but two stories high, the lower one of which contams 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 125 

the great kitchen, scullery, bakery, and laundry. The 
upper story contains the great central guard and inspec- 
tion room. This room is seventy feet square, and con- 
tains the galleries and staircases connecting with the gal- 
lei'ies outside of the cells in the three wings. 

The north, south, and east wings contain the cells, 
and are constructed upon the " Auburn plan," being a 
prison within a prison. The north and south wings each 
measure eighty feet six inches m length, fifty-five feet in 
width, and fifty-six feet in height. The east wing meas- 
ures one hundred and sixty-four feet six inches in length, 
fifty -five feet in width, and fifty-six feet m height above 
the surface of the ground. The west wing measures fifty- 
five feet in width,. sixty-four feet in length, and of uniform 
height with the three other wings, four stories in height, 
the lower one of which contains the family kitchen and 
scullery of the jailer. 

The exterior of the structure is entirely of Quincy 
granite, formed with split ashlar in courses, with cornices 
and other projecting portions hammered or dressed ; the 
remaining portions of the entire building, both inside and 
outside, are of brick, iron, and stone, excepting the inte- 
rior of the west wing, which is finished with Avood. 

The Eye and Ear Infirmary is situated on Charles 
Street, a short distance south of Cambridge Bridge. The 
building is of brick, and consists of a main building and 
11* 



126 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

two wings. The front of the principal building (which is 
sixty-seven feet in length and forty -four feet deep) is em- 
bellished by stone dressings to all the windows, doors, 
cornices in the Italian style. The wings retire from the 
front eleven feet, and are perfectly plain. In the base- 
ment are the kitchen, wash room, laundry, refectory 
wards, baths, store rooms, &c. In the first story in the 
main building are rooms for the matron and committee, 
and receiving and reading rooms ; in the wings are .the 
male wards, with opei'ating, apothecary, and bath rooms. 
In the second story are accommodations for the matron, 
and private female wards. The building is provided with 
a thorough system of ventilation, and the whole surrounded 
by a spacious, airy ground, shut out from the street by a , 
high brick wall. This institution is intended exclusively 
for the poor, and no fees are permitted to be taken. 

In the rear of the Infirmary, and extending from the 
west end of Cambridge Street to the opposite shore in 
Cambridge, is Cambridge Bridge, seeming (from a little 
distance) like a huge cable confining Boston to the main 
land. This bridge was the second built over Charles 
River, and the first bridge over which a horse railroad 
left the city. To the original proprietors a toll was 
granted for seventy years from the opening of the bridge, 
which, together with the causeway, was estimated to have 
cost twenty-three thousand pounds lawful money. 



CHAPTER XV. 



BACK BAY. 



Towards the close of the last century, there extended 
westward of Beacon Hill and the Common a cove, or 
bay, which, wlien the tide was full, spread its breadth of 
waters to the opposite upland. Into this basin flowed 
the Charles River, and several smaller streams, of which 
the most considerable were Muddy and Stony Brooks. 
Owing its formation partly to these streams, and in part 
to the tidal flow, much of it was shoal or marsh : but its 
channels were navigable ; and previous to the erection of 
Charles-river Bridge, in 1783, vessels of light draught 
could pass up from the sea without obstruction. Its east- 
erly boundary, south of Dover Street, reached the Rox- 
bury Road ; farther north, its shores nearly corresponding 
Avith the present line of Pleasant Street. Grants had 
been earlier made by the town of lots on the Roxbury 
Road, Avhich carried with them riparian rights, under the 
ordinance of 1641-1647, to flats extending one hundred 
rods from the upland, unless when abridged by conver- 
ging lines in the cove, or by the channels : the town, as 

127 



128 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

proprietor of the Common, under grant from Blackstone 
for a training field, had similar rights. 

In the year 1794, an extensive conflagration destroyed 
the ropewalks near the westerly declivity of Fort Hill ; 
and six strips, fifty by eleven hundred feet each, of land 
then flovped by the tide, but which, recently filled in, 
forms the larger part of the Public Garden, were granted 
by the town for others to be erected. These, in 1806, 
were also burnt and rebuilt ; again consumed in 1819 ; 
and the proprietors, after long negotiations, in 1824 re- 
linquished, imder an award, their rights to the city for 
$54,000. While these buildings remained, the place was 
a favorite resort for fishing and bathing, and similar en- 
joyments for the younger portion of the inhabitants. 
Outside the ropewalks, and not far from the summer- 
house, or centre of the pond, was a small elevation 
known as Fox Hill, which, in the previous century, had 
been occasionally used as the site for a windmill. 

Sixty years ago, Uriah Cotting was in the full vigor 
of his faculties, and these were all directed to the de- 
velopment of the town. Improvements near Barton's 
Point at its western extremity, at Wheeler's Point to- 
wards the south, India Wharf and Broad Street, were 
the fruits of his ceaseless activity. When these projects 
were accomplished, he turned his attention to the Back 
Bay. In 1813, a charter had been granted for the con- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 129 

struction of the Western Avenue from the foot of Beacon 
Street to Sewall's Point, in Brookline, with branches to 
Brighton and Roxbury. The causeway was to be used 
as a milldam, the ebb and flow of the tide furnishing 
water-power for gi'ist and other mill purposes. This was 
not a novel idea in Boston, inasmuch as tide-mills for 
grist, colors, and chocolate; had long existed on the mill- 
pond, which had then recently yielded to the march of 
improvement in that quarter, and been filled in. Cot- 
ting, in 1818, issued an address recommending that the 
causeway should be two hundred feet in width, with 
house-lots on either side, as at present ; and that the full 
basin should be placed on the Boston side of the bay. 

Had this plan been adopted, a vast sheet of water, as 
large as Jamaica Pond, would have spread from Charles 
Street towards the west, and, connected with the sea 
by gates open at high tide, its purity would have been 
preserved. Around it would have risen palatial dwell- 
ings and public edifices of stately splendor : the fash- 
ionable quarter, with the development of wealth and 
numbers, would have made more rapid strides towards 
the opposite uplands, which, crowned with parks and 
pleasure-grounds, would have affbrded opportunity to all 
classes for exercise and recreation. The existing ar- 
rangement has its advantages : it is more convenient, and 
we have the Garden and greenhouse close at hand ; but, 



130 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

if this design had been carried out, neither the celebrated 
Inner Allster of Hamburg, nor the Lagoons of Venice, 
could have surpassed in beauty, either at noonday or by 
moonlight, this spacious water-park. 

In 1821, on the second of July, the avenue was opened 
for passengers ; and a cavalcade of citizens passed over 
it in honor of the occasion. Although, when the sub- 
scription-lists were opened, the stock had been taken in a 
day, it never proved remunerative ; and the water-power 
proved of far less value than had been anticipated. The 
area of the receiving basin was about five hundred and 
fifty acres ; that of the full basin, a hundred and ninety- 
four acres, and various transfers were made from time 
to time by the riparian owners and the corporations. In 
1838, and again in 1846, leases were made to Horace 
Gray and his associates, of that part of the Back Bay 
which belonged to the city, as proprietor of the Common, 
for a public garden. In 1848, the Legislature created a 
commission to ascertain the rights and duties of the 
Commonwealth in the bay. The Supreme Court having 
decided that the fee of the land below the riparian rights 
was in the State, measures were taken to turn it to ac- 
count. The increased sewage which accumulated in the 
empty basin tainting the air, and threatening the health 
of the neighborhood, prepared the way for excluding the 
water, and filling it up. 



BOSTON AND VICINITT. 131 

It admits of a grave doubt, the basin having been a 
part of the sea, and, by common law, held by the State 
in eminent domain for the purposes of navigation, whether 
the Legislature could properly appropriate it for general 
purposes. As a tidal reservoir, previously serving to 
maintain the channels of the harbor at suitable depths, 
when it ceased to be available for the other public objects 
to which it had been appropriated, it should have revert- 
ed to its original use, and its proceeds, when sold, 
applied to preserve the harbor from deterioration. Le- 
gislative bodies are not apt to be scrupulous, and the 
whole Commonwealth Avas admitted to participate in 
what belonged to Boston Harbor. Another injustice was 
wrought in depriving riparians of drainage without com- 
pensation. The owners of lands on the empty basin had 
been benefited in this respect, by the original stipulation 
that the water should never be allowed to rise more than 
three feet above the sluice-ways, or low tide ; and had 
erected buildings at low grades in the expectation that 
this arrangement was to be permanent. But, when the 
sewage capacity of the basin became gradually dimin- 
ished by filling up, their cellars were overflowed, and 
their houses rendered unhealthy, and of little value. The 
city treasury will probably be called upon to expend 
large sums in raising this low territory to a better grade 
for drainage ; and it is to be hoped that the Legislature, 



,132 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

if it does not assume its liability to re-imburse the city 
out of the proceeds of the lands, as it of right ought, 
will modify the grade-laws so that owners of houses may 
be compelled to contribute a reasonable proportion of the 
additional value which may be added to their property by 
the improvement, towards its cost. 

After the respective rights of the proprietors in the 
basin had been determined, preliminary steps were im- 
mediately taken to prepare the territory for habitation. 
The lines of ownership were in some instances re-adjusted ; 
streets were laid out ; and a system of drainage adopted. 
These Avere again from time to time modified, that the 
streets might better connect with those of other sections 
of the city ; and instead of the great sewer, at the outlet, 
nine feet in diameter, through Dartmouth, formerly Ded- 
ham Street, two of six feet were, in 1864, substituted 
through Dartmouth and Berkeley Streets. As the rails 
of the Providence and Worcester Railroads were, at some 
points, of a less grade than six feet above low water (too 
low for effective drainage for the lands belonging to the 
Water-power Company east thereof), it was decided to 
carry this sewage into the South Bay. The gravel and 
earth for filling up the Commonwealth lands was brought 
from near Charles River, in Needham, by the Brookline 
branch of the Worcester Railroad. 

The territory of the Commonwealth westward of the 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 133 

Garden comprised an area of about one hundred acres, 
or four millions and a half of square feet. The pro- 
ceeds were appropriated to the school-fund and other 
educational purposes, including grants to some of the 
colleges of the State. In 1860, the Natural-history So- 
ciety and Technological Institute made an application 
to the Legislature for a lot of land for their buildings ; 
and about three acres, or a space of 240 by 548 square 
feet, between Berkeley and Clarendon, Newbury and 
Boylston Streets, was granted to them on certain condi- 
tions. The portion of the two streets, viz. Boylston and 
Newbury, abutting on this grant, now bears the name 
of Berkeley Square. Two spacious edifices for their 
accommodation have already been erected, and one of 
them completed. These are very ornamental to the bay, 
and Berkeley Square will one day be made exceedingly 
attractive. Near by are other institutions, one of which 
is for the education of young women of the Catholic 
Church ; the other, an asylum for aged blacks. Several 
Churches, the Unitarian on Arlington Street, the Imman- 
uel on Newbury, the Berkeley Street, and Central Con- 
gregational on Berkeley, are imposing structures. The 
First Church will be at the corner of Newbury and Marl- 
borough. Whoever has heard the musical chimes that 
peal from the Arlington-church steeple must appreciate 
how much they add to the sacred pleasures of the sab- 
bath, as also to our festal occasions. 
12 



134 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

The sales already effected have agreeably disappointed 
the most sanguine expectations. The aggregate, with 
interest, made up to 1866, is over two and a quarter 
millions of dollars ; the cost of filling and preparing for 
sale having been upwards of one million. Already about 
twelve hundred thousand dollars have been paid to the 
education-fund, and to various colleges and institutions ; 
and every town in Massachusetts is indebted to these 
lands for aid in the education of its youth. The Com- 
monwealth has still undisposed of 980,032 square feet ; 
and, remaining to be filled, 134,200 square feet, exclu- 
sive of streets and passage-ways. 

If we bear in mind that only ten years have elapsed 
since the tripartite indenture was signed, and the Back 
Bay appropriated to habitation, and but five since the first 
dwelling-house was erected thereon, and that, during the 
larger portion of that period, the country has been en- 
gaged in a civil war of gigantic proportions, we cannot 
but be struck with astonishment at what has already been 
accomplished. Many dwellings have been already erect 
ed, and many more are in process of construction. The 
tax-lists show already a valuation of three millions of 
dollars on this section between Tremont Street and the 
Charles-river basin ; and the buildings are costly and 
elegant. 

The principal street of the bay, Commonwealth Ave- 



BOSTON AND VICmiTY. 135 

nue, two hundred and forty feet in width, including the 
central mall, extends from the Garden in a westerly di- 
rection, and in time, doubtless, will reach the Heights of 
Brookline. Already it has been decorated by a colossal 
statue of white granite of Alexander Hamilton, by the 
distinguished artist Rimmer, placed in the mall by our 
munificent fellow-citizen, Thomas Lee, Esq. ; and this 
magnificent thoroughfare will no doubt be further embel- 
lished in time by other works of art, fountains, and for- 
est-trees. Parallel Avith the avenue, towards the north, 
are Marlborough and Beacon, towards the south, New- 
bury and Boylston Streets ; while two large avenues, Co- 
lumbus and Huntington, extending in a south-westerly 
direction, form the main arteries of the Water-power 
territory. The names of the streets running north and 
south — Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth, and 
Exeter, — follow an alphabetical progression which it is 
proposed to continue as the residue of the State domain 
is developed. Dartmouth Street, by legislative enact- 
ment in 1866, was made a hundred feet wide. 

The Board of Aldermen, in 1860, offered a premium 
for the best plan for the Public Garden ; and several were 
submitted. That of G. "W". Meacham was selected. The 
area of the garden is twenty-four acres, three of which 
are appropriated to a lake of irregular but graceful form. 
Originally, the level being much below that of the sur- 



136 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

rounding streets, the land was filled up at an expense of 
seventy thousand dollars. The greenhouse was removed 
from its former position near Beacon Street, and the 
Garden enclosed with an iron fence. It is thickly plant- 
ed with flowers and shrubs, and abounds with fountains, 
in one of which stands a statue of Venus, the gift of the 
late John D. Bates, whose handsome mansion near by, 
at the Corner of Arlington Street and Commonwealth 
Avenue, was the first erected on the bay, having been 
commenced in 18G0, and completed ready for occupancy 
in 1863. 

During the dull and trying times in the early period 
of the Rebellion, the commissioners were unable to dis- 
pose of the lands of the Commonwealth advantageously, 
and called upon the Legislature for an issue of scrip to 
carry on the work of filling. Two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars were appropriated ; of which the sum 
of two hundred and twenty thousand dollars only was 
used, and has been since returned to the treasury. 

The good judgment of the commissioners in disposing 
of the Commonwealth's lands is manifest from the feet 
that the price received has generally been much higher 
than was anticipated. 

The average value of the property of the Common- 
wealth, as shown by the sales, has steadily advanced from 
SI. 17 in 1858, to over $2.80 per square foot in 1865. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 137 



NOTE. 

It is not necessary for our present purpose to present in detail the plans 
adopted, or their modifications. For tlie benefit of whoever desires more 
exact information, reference is made to the following; documents and deeds, 
as also to acts and resolves of the Legislature passed iu relation to the 
bay. 1. Charter of Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation, June 14, 1814. 
2. Additional Act, Feb. 11, 1824. 3. Indentures between David Sears 
and City of Boston, 1S24. 4. Charter of Boston Water-power Company, 
1824. 5. Indentures between City of Boston and Boston Watsr-power 
Company, Dec. 26, 1826, and Feb. 1, 1827. 6. Agreement City of BostoH 
and Edward Tuckerman and others, and Boston and Koxbury 3Iill Corpo- 
ration, Dec. 26, 1826 ; lib. 315, fol. 278. 7. Agreement between Boston and 
Roxbury Mill Corporation, Ephraim Marsh and others, Sept. 30, 1828; lib. 
358, fol. 217. 8. Indenture between David Sears and Roxbury, 1832. 9. Act 
establishing boundaries between Boston and Roxbury, March 16, 1836. 
10. Act authorizing Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation to fill up 100 
feet north of the Milldam, 1843. 11. Act authorizing Boston and Roxbury 
Mill Corporation to extend a wharf at foot of Beacon Street, 1844. 12. 
Release of Water Power to Boston and Worcester Railroad, 1846. 13. Re- 
solve of Legislature appointing Commissioners, May 10, 1848. 14. Report 
of City Committee on drainage, Oct. 1, 1849. 15. Report of Commission to 
Legislature, 1850. 16. Report of Commissioners to Legislature, 1852. 17. 
Act granting Boston Water Power Company $275,000 increase of capital, 
stipulating tolls shall cease on Milldam, May 1, 1863, June, 1854. 18. In- 
denture Commonwealth and Boston and Roxbury Dam Corporation, June 
9, 1854 ; lib. 665, fol. 149. 19. Indenture Commonwealth and Boston Water 
Power Company June 9, 1854 ; lib. 665, fol. 145. 20. Indenture Common- 
wealth and Boston Water Power Company, Sept. 26, 1854. 21. Indenture 
Commonwealth, Boston, and Boston Water PowerCompany, Dec. 11, 1856. 
22. Release Commonwealth to City of Lands on Marlborough and New- 
bury Streets, on condition that strip on Arlington Street be added to Pub- 
lic Garden. 23. Vote of city, dedicating strips on Arlington Streets to 
Public Garden, 1860. 24. Report of City Commission on street sewage 
and grade, Aug. 24, 1863; doc. 81. 25. Indenture of Commonwealth, City 
of Boston, and Boston Water-power Company, modifying indenture. 26. 
Indenture between the Commissioners on Public Lands and the heirs of 
David Sears, for the purpose of adjusting the line of ownership between 
these parties. Dec. 1, 1865, 

12* 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CHAELES-RIVER BASIN AND SOUTH BAT. 

Between the "Western Avenue and the raih-oad 
bridges which cross from Causeway Street is the Charles- 
river Basin, crossed by the West-Boston Bridge to Cam- 
bridgeport, and Craigie's Bridge to East Cambridge. On 
the other side of the Back Bay, between the city proper 
and South Boston, lies the South Bay. This formerly 
comprised three hundred and sixty acres, but has been 
reduced, by the extension of wharves and solid filling, to 
less than one-half that area. Vessels of light draught 
can reach its upper end in Roxbury, the channel having 
been recently deepened. In 1848, a contract was made 
for filling up twenty acres of flats belonging to the city, 
to cost about four hundred thousand dollars. This con- 
tract was modified in 1856, so that the cost, when com- 
pleted in 1862, amounted to thrice that sum. It has 
been in part sold for dwelUngs ; and on its area have been 
erected the City Hospital, and a large and commodious 
stable for the Health Department, where eighty horses 
are kept for street purposes. 

138 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 139 

For many years, a want had been felt for another gen- 
eral hospital ; when, upon the recommendation of more 
than one hundred of the faculty, the city council author- 
ized its construction. From the public domain on the 
South Bay, a site on Harrison Avenue, between Concord 
and Springfield Streets, was selected, since extended to 
the water, and comprising about eight acres, or 361,000 
square feet. The work was commenced in the fall of 
1861, and the buildings were open for the reception of 
patients in June, 1864. These consist of a central edi- 
fice for the administration, pay-patients, and surgical 
operations ; two pavilions connected therewith by corri- 
dors, each containing three long wards, besides other 
apartments ; another pavilion for separate treatment ; and 
a long, low structure for a laundry, and steam apparatus 
tor warming and ventilating. On the water side of 
Albany Street are other buildings for diiferent pur- 
poses. 

Both surgical and medical cases are treated ; chronic, 
incurable, and contagious cases not coming, however, 
within the rules. The number which can be accommo- 
dated is about two hundred ; but there is space for other 
pavilions. Dr. Derby is the admitting physician ; L. A. 
Cutler, Esq., the superintendent. The control is vested 
in a board of eight trustees, five of whom are members 
of the city council, and three citizens at large. 



140 BOSTON AND VICINITV. 

Opposite the City Hospital is the Catholic Church op 
THE Immaculate Conception, one of the handsomest 
churches in the city. Adjoining to it is the Boston Col- 
lege. On Washington Street, not far to the north, is to 
be erected the cathedral. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE MUSEUM OF THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HIS- 
TORY. TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 

The Museum is situated upon Berkeley Street ; it is 
a handsome structure of brick and freestone, having a 
front of a hundred and five feet, and eighty feet high. 
It is built in the classic style of architecture, with Co- 
rinthian pilasters and capitals : the foundation is of 
heavy hammered granite, the first story, of freestone, 
and the second and third of brick ; the trimmings and 
external ornamental work are of freestone. Over the 
main entrance is carved the seal of the society, with the 
head of Cuvier ; and on the keys of the windows are cut 
the heads of various wild animals. The pediment is 
surmounted by a carved wooden eagle. 

From the spacious vestibule open the library, lecture- 
hall, and other rooms. Around the sides of the vestibule 
are exhibited the fossil footprints of animals from the quar- 
ries of the Connecticut River. On the left of the vestibule 
is the secretary's office, and a similar room in the rear ; 
in the rear of the vestibule is the lecture-room ; on the 

141 



142 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

right are the ethnological and botanical rooms, in the 
former of which are displayed the household utensils, gar- 
ments, and weapons of different ancient and modern races 
of men. Between these two apartments is a small room 
containing the microscopical collection of the late Pro- 
fessor Bailey. The main hall is on the second floor, and 
extends thence to the roof, being lighted principally from 
above. It is forty by ninety feet, and sixty feet in height, 
and is encircled by balconies connecting with the floors 
or balconies of the adjoining rooms. Opening from the 
hall floor are two rooms on either side, each thirty feet 
square. The eastern end of the hall, and the south room 
at that end, are devoted to the departments of geology 
and paleontology ; the corresponding room on the north 
side contains the minerals. The entire western end, with 
the adjoining rooms, is set apart for the bones and skele- 
tons of different animals, and contains the finest series 
of mounted skeletons in the country ; especially those of 
the cat tribe, viz., the lion, leopard, lynx, «&;c. In one 
of the cases may be seen, side by side, the skeletons of a 
European, a Hottentot, and a gorilla, and, at their right, 
orang-outangs, and the monkey-tribe. In other cases in 
this department will be found well-mounted skeletons of 
the wolf, hyena, jackal, bear, &c. ; squirrels of different 
sorts ; also different breeds of dogs, and the three-toed 
and two-toed, or American and African ostriches. Two 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 143 

large cases are filled with the skulls of different races of 
men. At the west end of the main hall, the skeleton of 
an elephant is seen, accompanied on either side by a 
moose and a horse ; at the other extremity, in the geo- 
logical department, is placed a cast of the huge megathe- 
rium, one of the largest of the extinct fossil animals 
belonging to the sloth tribe : it is represented in the act 
of feeding from the upper branches of a large oak-tree. 

The cases of the first gallery suri'ounding the main 
hall are devoted to birds and shells. 

The cases of the second galleries are devoted to the 
insects of New England, and to reptiles and fishes, corals 
and other radiata, crabs, lobsters, &c. 

These collections have been brought together by the 
energy and enthusiasm of the members of the society, 
and its many friends throughout the State, from whom it 
is receiving, and still hopes to receive, valuable accessions. 

The library belonging to the society is composed of 
works on natural history, and contains about eight 
thousand volumes and pamphlets, many of them exquis- 
itely illustrated works of great value. The society hold 
semi-monthly meetings, have published sixteen octavo 
volumes of Transactions, and number over four hundred 
resident members. They own the building which they 
occupy, which was completed in 1864, at the expense of 
about a hundred thousand dollars, obtained by subscrip- 



144 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

tioa from the liberal citizens of Boston and vicinity, and 
by the munificent donations or bequests of distinguished 
patrons of science. The ground occupied by the society, 
in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, was ceded to them by a grant of the State of 
Massachusetts. The Museum is open to the public every 
Wednesday and Saturday, from ten, a.m., to five, p.m. 

The Institute was chartered in 1861. Its principal 
object is the application of science to the useful arts ; 
training young men in the different branches of construc- 
tion, engineering, chemistry, and metallurgy, and, by its 
classical lectures and discussions, raising the standard of 
all mechanical and industrial pursuits. It has already 
organized classes, attended by nearly one hundred pupils. 
As it is richly endowed, it will soon possess all the mod- 
els, apparatus, and cabinets needed to illustrate the in- 
struction it affords ; and these must always prove an 
interesting study to strangers in Boston. Its president 
is "William B. Rogers, to whose zeal in the work of pop- 
ular education and practical science we are indebted for 
its foundation. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

EDUCATION. NEWSPAPERS. 

Of the thirty-five thousiind children in the city between 
the ages of five and sixteen, one-tenth are supposed to 
attend private schools, and one-tenth not to attend any. 
Of the twenty-eight thousand left, there are thirteen thou- 
sand in the primary, and thirteen thousand in the gram- 
mar schools ; the sexes being nearly equally divided, 
about one-fifteenth in excess of half the whole number be- 
ing females. These are instructed, in classes of about 
sixty, by one hundred male and four hundred female 
teachers, ki about five hundred rooms. The school edi- 
fices are conveniently distributed about the city ; there be- 
ing ten school buildings for girls and as many for boys 
in the grammar-schools, and thirty more for the primary. 
Besides these, there are an English High School and a 
Latin School, on Bedford Street, for preparing boys for 
college or business ; and a High and Normal School for 
girls, in Mason Street, with a training-school attached in 
Somerset Street, where pupils of distinguished scholarship 
in the grammar-schools are prepared to become teachers. 
13 145 



146 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

The general charge of the public instruction of the 
city is in the school-committee of seventy-two, six from 
each ward, elected for three years, with alternate vacan- 
cies, who meet quarterlv, or oftener, in the Common-coun- 
cil chamber, and, by their several sub-committees, super- 
vise the schools. The superintendent of public schools, 
Mr. J. D. Philbrick, has his office in the City Hall, and 
has the general control under the committees. 

Besides these schools, there are several boarding or day 
schools for Catholic children whose parents prefer they 
should be educated apart from the Protestants. The 
principal Catholic Seminary is St. Mary's, on Endicott 
Street. At the St. Vincent de Paul, there are three hun- 
dred children ; in Father Haskins's, four hundred ; and 
about two thousand more in different schools. There are, 
moreover, various asylums for orphans and indigent chil- 
dren, having schools of their own ; others where children 
attend public schools in the neighborhood. The Farm 
School, on Thompson's Island, is of the former class ; 
but this and similar institutions will be more particularly 
described under the head of Charities. 

On Harrison Avenue is a Jesuit Catholic Seminary, 
called the Boston College ; and, on Berkeley Street, a 
school for adult female Catholics. 

The Technological Institute is organizing various 
classes for instruction in the useful arts. The School of 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 147 

Design teaches the mechanical application of the fine 
arts. The Medical College, in Grove Street, has an at- 
tendance of four hundred pupils on its lectures ; and the 
Female Medical College, in Rutland Street, has numer- 
ous pupils. There are schools for poor adults in the War- 
ren-street Chapel. 

Newspapers. — It is well known that Boston has the 
honor of the first newspaper on the continent : it was 
called the Newsletter ; it was a small half-sheet, first 
published April 6, 1704. Dec. 21, 1719, James Frank- 
lin, the brother of the renowned philosopher and states- 
man, issued the Boston Gazette. On the 17th of August, 
1721, the Courant followed; and March 20, 1727, the 
New-England Weekly Journal, which was united with the 
Gazette in 1741. In 1730, the Evening Post was first is- 
sued, and continued down to 1775. The Boston Weekly 
Post-boy, issued in 1734, was continued twenty-one years. 
The Independent Advertiser, to which Samuel Adams 
contributed, existed but two years, to wit, 1748 and 1749. 
In 1775, the Boston Gazette and Country Journal was 
issued, and sustained till 1798. In 1767, the Boston 
Chronicle appeared, the first paper published in New 
England as often as twice a week. The Columbian Cen- 
tinel was started in 1790, and was ably supported by the 
best writers of the day ; Higginson, Lowell, Sullivan, 
Adams, Jarvis, Austin, Ames, and many more, being at 
that period constant contributors to the journals. 



148 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

Early in the preseut century, the Centinel, Chronicle, 
Repertory, and Democrat were the principal papers. 
Later, the Daily Advertiser, edited by Nathan Hale, 
uniting with the Chronicle, became one of our most re- 
spectable prints. In 1830, the Boston Post and Atlas, 
both daily papers, were the most active organs of the 
opposing parties, the Democrats and Whigs. It is not 
our purpose to enumerate all the papers which have at 
dilferent periods enjoyed a brief hold on popular regard, 
but to direct attention to such as are now issued in this 
city. The Advertiser, Journal, Traveller, and Transcript 
are in their politics decidedly Republican ; the Herald 
somewhat neutral ; the Post and Evening Commercial ad- 
vocate strict adherence to the Constitution. Besides these 
papers, issued daily, are the Saturday-Evening Gazette, 
Express, Sunday Herald, Commonwealth, Voice, Volun- 
teer, Bulletin, Journal of Music, Pilot, and others, ap- 
pearing once a week. Besides these, the North-Ameri- 
can Review, New-England Historical and Genealogical 
Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Young Folks, and other 
periodicals, appear quarterly or monthly. Files of News 
papers are to be found in the libraries of the Athenaeum, 
State, Massachusetts Historical, and New-England His- 
tcric-Genealoorical Societies. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

TOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION. — AMERICAN CON- 
gregational association, the general theolo- 
gical library. 

The Boston Young Men's Christian Association 
occupies the whole front of Ti'emout Temple, up one flight, 
and is always free to young men and strangers, from 
nine, a.m., to ten, p.m. It is divided into five apartments. 
In the centre is a large, spacious room, used as the read- 
ing-room, where may be found all the principal daily and 
weekly papers, secular and religious, and all the periodi- 
cals and magazines of the day. On the left is a room 
devoted to the library of the Association, which numbers 
upwards of three thousand five hundred good standard 
works of history, biography, poetry, &c. 

On the right of the reading-room is the committee- 
room, occupied by the Bible-class every Saturday even- 
ing, and daily used as a conversational room. Opening 
from this is the cabinet-room of curiosities. 

This Association had its oi-igin in a meeting of a 
few Christian young men, held Dec. 21, 1851, to consider 
what should be done in this great city to shield the young 
13 * 149 



150 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

men and youth coming from the tender watch and care 
of a loving mother, and the healthful influences of the 
home fireside, into temptation and danger. It was final- 
ly voted to form an association, which should have for 
its object the mental, moral, and spiritual well-being of 
the young men and youth of our city. Providence 
smiled upon the effort ; the churches seconded it ; the 
young men and strangers welcomed it. Since its forma- 
tion over six thousand five hundred young men have been 
members of the Association ; and six thousand five hun- 
dred more, we believe, have been equal recipients of its 
benefits. Thousands upon thousands have been blessed 
through its instrumentality. 

For nine years, there has been a daily evening prayer- 
meeting, from nine to ten o'clock, in the reading-room, 
open to all ; and for eight years a daily prayer-meeting 
on board the United-States receiving-ship " Ohio," sta- 
tioned in our harbor, conducted by the members. 

There is a committee of attendance on the sick in the 
association ; a committee on employment, who assist 
young men in procuring good situations ; a committee on 
boarding-houses, who provide good boarding-places for 
young men and strangers, by applying at the rooms ; 
and a comtnittee on Bible and tract distribution, who fur- 
nish Bibles and tracts gratuitously to those who need. 

This institution bore a noble part in the work of the 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 151 

United-States Christian Commission. Its members were 
first and foremost in the formation of that Commission ; 
and, through its army committee, this Association collect- 
ed from the people of Boston, and other cities and vil- 
lages of New England, the noble sum of nearly $350,000 
for the Commission ; also, 5,498 boxes and packages of 
hospital-supplies, which were properly forAvarded and 
distributed. Eternity alone will reveal the results of 
these labors. Make your sons and brothers members 
of this Association when they first come to the city. 

Mr. Rowland, the librarian, will make welcome any 
who may visit the rooms, at No. 5, Tremont Temple. 

The American Congregational Association has 
rooms and its library at No. 40, Winter Street. It 
was formed in May, 1852, and has for its chief objects, 
first, the gathering, and carefully arranging and preserv- 
ing books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and other mementoes 
of the founders of New England, which illustrate their 
principles and the church-polity which they established ; 
and, secondly, to adjust these in a place which shall be- 
come a congregational home, having a structure so 
fitted, that, while its library treasures shall be perfectly 
available to all who may desire the privilege, it shall, at 
the same time, have the conveniences and attractions of 
a congregational home, where the ministers and mem- 
bership of the Congregational churches throughout the 



152 BOSTON AND VICINITT. 

country may meet, and catch the inspiration of the Pil- 
grim and Puritan fathers, who, though dead, will there 
speak. It is the intention of the Association, as soon 
as their funds will admit, to erect a suitable fire-proof 
building for the purposes above mentioned, which shall 
be an ornament to the city. 

The library thus far collected contains 5,689 bound 
volumes, including duplicates ; and 37,895 pamphlets, 
assorted and arranged by Rev. Isaac P. Langworthy, 
corresponding secretary and librarian : it is open to all 
for daily consultation. The visitor in Boston will find 
much of curious interest to the scholar and historian on 
the shelves of this Association. There is a lai'ger collec- 
tion of treatises upon the Congregational church-polity 
found here, probably, than exists in any other public 
library in the country. 

The General Theological Library. — This insti- 
tution was founded in the city of Boston on the 20th of 
April, 1860 ; opened to the public in 1862 ; and incorpo- 
rated in 1864. Its object is " to benefit all religious de- 
nominations, and to promote the interests of religion, 
and the increase of theological learning, by a public the- 
ological library." There is nothing sectarian in its char- 
acter, principles, or operations. 

The library now contains nearly five thousand volmnes, 
and about eighty periodicals are regularly placed upon 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 153 

the tables of the reading-room. All but purely reference- 
books may be taken from the library. Persons residing 
within ten miles of Boston can take out two books at a 
time, and retain them a fortnight ; if living beyond ten 
miles, they can retain them for a month. In the case of 
new books, a single volume is taken at a time, and is re- 
tained only half as long as one that is not new. 

The volumes are principally used by clergymen, sab- 
bath-school teachers, authors, editors, theological stu- 
dents, and members of congregations in New England, 
of every denomination, and of both sexes. 

The library and reading-room are situated at No. 41 
Tremont Street, nearly opposite King's Chapel, in Bos- 
ton ; and all persons are welcome as visitors every day 
between the hours of eight, a.m., and six, p.m. 

This is already one of the interesting institutions of 
Boston, particulai'ly to persons connected with the various 
religious denominations. 



CHAPTER XX. 

MOUNT- VERNON CHURCH. — MISSIONARY HOUSE. — MASSA- 
CHUSETTS SABBATH-SCHOOL SOCIETY. NEW-ENGLAND 

METHODIST DEPOSITORY. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, NEW-ENGLAND BRANCH. 

MASSACHUSETTS BIBLE SOCIETY. 

The Mount- Vernon Church, in Ashburton Place, was 
erected in 1843. The dimensions of the building are 
seventy-five feet by ninety-seven, containing a hundred 
and thirty-two pews on the lower floor, and fifty in the 
gallery, in vv^hich twelve hundred and seventy persons 
may be comfortably seated. The basement story con- 
tains, besides the several committee-rooms, a commodi- 
ous chapel, sixty-eight feet long by forty-eight feet wide, 
and fifteen feet high, which accommodates six hundred 
persons Avith seats. 

The Rev. Edward N. Kirk, D.D., has been the pastor 
of this religious society since its organization, June 
1, 1842. 

On account of the quiet situation and eligible accom- 
modations of this church, it was selected as the place 
for the meetings of the National Congregational Council, 

154 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



155 



which assembled June 14, 1865, and continued its ses- 
sion ten days. The assembly was composed of five hun- 
dred and nineteen clerical and lay delegates, representing 




the Congregational Churches of the nation, more than 
three thousand in number, scattered from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific coasts. Its convocation is regarded as one 



156 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



of the most important epochs in the history of Congre- 
gationalism which has occurred since the landing of the 
Pilgrim Fathers on Plymouth Rock, which the convoca- 
tion visited during their session. 




The Missionary House, No. 33 Pemberton Square, 
!s an object of interest to many who visit the city of 
Boston. It Avas completed early in 1839, and has since 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 157 

been occupied by the officers of the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It cost about 
twenty-three thousand dollars, and is admirably located 
for the uses which it subserves. In the third story will 
be found a cabinet of curiosities collected and sent home 
by missionaries. 

The society which erected this building was organized 
in 1810 ; and as it is the oldest, so it is the largest of 
the institutions of its class in the United States. It has 
missions in China, India, Western Asia, Greece, South 
Africa, West Africa, the Pacific Ocean, and among the 
Xorth- American Indians ; and its expenditures, some 
years, have exceeded five hundred thousand dollars. The 
men sustained by it have reduced some twenty-five lan- 
guages to writing ; published books at presses owned by 
the Board in nearly fifty difi^erent tongues ; made the 
Bible accessible by their translations to many millions of 
our race ; established schools wherever they have gone, 
some of the highest grade as well as the lowest ; formed 
Christian churches, which have become centres of light 
and truth in some of the darkest portions of the earth. 
Its aims and operations are therefore manifold. It Chris- 
tianizes and civilizes at the same time. Hence the ne- 
cessity of that generous patronage which it receives. 

Passing east from Pemberton Square, across Court 
Street, diagonally, you come to Cornhill, so named from 
14 



158 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

the old book-mart in London, and a street equally famous 
in the New World for the number and variety of its 
bookselling, publishing, and printing establishments. In 
this short street, connecting Court and Washington 
Streets, and its immediate neighborhood, are at least 
thirty different establishments where printing, binding, 
and publishing in various departments are extensively 
carried on. Here are located the Tract societies, with 
their immense lists of publications ; and from hence are 
sent out monthly scores of thousands of their periodicals. 
Here are the Sabbath-school Depositoi-ies of the Congre- 
gationalists, Baptists, Methodists, and Universalists. 
Hei'e are the headquarters of the Bible Society, Educa- 
tion, Congregational Board of Publication, Home Mis- 
sionary, Temperance, and other public institutions. From 
this little street, issue the weekly organs of the Congre- 
gationalists, Methodists, and Universalists. And just 
around this centre are numerous printing establishments, 
— among them one of the very largest and most com- 
plete in New England, — binderies, type-founderies, and 
stereotype establishments. This is the great mart for 
Sunday-school literature of all kinds, and religious and 
miscellaneous books, new and old. In short, it is the 
Cornhill of Boston and New England. 

At 13 Cornhill may be found the rooms of the Mas- 
sachusetts Sabbath School Society, a store which 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 159 

has been occupied by them for more than a quarter of a 
century. This society publishes a very large number of 
attractive library and gift books for the young ; and also 
the little paper called the Well Spring, which we read 
when we were many years younger than now, and which 
has exerted a good influence upon the children for a gen- 
eration. Rev. Asa Bullard has edited this paper since 
its commencement ; its circulation is now about a hun- 
dred and eighty thousand per month. This society is 
congregational, and publishes only books approved by a 
committee of eight clergymen of this denomination ; it 
circulates about $125,000 worth of books each year. Its 
agent and treasurer is Moses H. Sargent. 

The Congregational Board of Publication have their 
headquarters at this place. The publications of the 
Board are widely and favorably knowTi for their sterling 
qualities and permanent interest. The treasurer is M. 
H. Sargent, Esq. 

New-England Methodist Depository, No. 5, Corn- 
hill. — This is the agency of the Methodist Book Con- 
cern, at New York. It is now the largest religious pub- 
lishing house in the world. It was commenced in 1789, 
on a borrowed capital of six hundred dollars. In 1836, 
it had so increased its business that its capital stock was 
valued at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In 
this year the whole establishment was destroyed by fire. 



160 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

But it has risen from its ashes ; and, from the report of 
the agents in 1864, we learn that it has two principal 
establishments, — one in New York, and one in Cincin- 
nati, — with an aggregate capital of $850,000. It has 
seven depositories in our principal cities, of which Boston 
is one. It employs four agents, Avho manage the busi- 
ness ; twelve editors of its periodicals, and over five hun- 
dred clerks and operatives. It publishes one Quarterly 
Review, four Monthlies, one Semi-monthly, and ten Week- 
lies, with an aggregate circulation of over 1,000,000 copies 
per month. It publishes about 500 bound books, from a 
folio Bible to the smallest size book. It also publishes 
1,500 Sunday-school books, and about 900 tract publica- 
tions in various tongues. 

This Concern is the property of the Church, and is 
managed by agents elected at each General Conference, 
which meets quadrennially. Its profits are used entirely 
for church purposes of a general character. 

The agency at Boston occupies limited quarters at pres- 
ent ; but it is in contemplation soon to erect a fine build- 
ing, which shall accommodate the book business and the 
Zion's Herald (the New-England Methodist paper), and 
furnish headquarters for the denomination in New Eng- 
land. The agent is Mr. James P. Magee. 

The American Tract Society, No. 28 Cornhill, was 
organized at Boston, May 23, 1814. Some incipient 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 161 

measures leading to it had been adopted in the autumn 
preceding. The first publications of the society were 
mostly reprints of the best tracts of the English and 
Scotch societies. During the first eleven years, the 
whole number published was 177 twelve mos, and 18 
twenty-four mos, the latter being tracts for the young. 
Of both series, 5,146,000 copies had been printed. The 
Christian Almanac was begun in 1821, the first num- 
ber of which was prepared by Rev. Rufus Anderson, 
D.D. This society early gained a strong hold on the 
affections of the Christian public throughout the land, 
and speedily received contributions to its funds from nearly 
every State. The object of the society is " to promote 
the interests of vital godliness and good morals, by the 
distribution of such books and tracts as may be calcu- 
lated to receive the approbation of Christians of all 
denominations usually termed evangelical." 

The society has at present regular business connec- 
tions with publishers and booksellers in most of the 
principal cities in the country ; and enjoys, through the 
enterprise and liberality of these houses, facilities for 
obtaining a very wide circulation of its publications. 

Its position before the country and the world is known 
as the promoter of an evangelical Christian literature, 
adapted to the wants of the times, and imbued with the 
spirit of loyalty to our country, and fidelity to the rights 
of man. 14 * 



162 boston and vicinitr, 

American Tract Society, New-England Branch, 

No. 40 Coniliill, Boston. This house is a branch of the 
American Tract Society, whose headquarters are at New 
York. Its business is chiefly with New England and 
the British Provinces. The national society publish 
an immense number of books and tracts yearly, and 
issue volumes and cheap publications in no less than 
140 languages. It also publishes the American Messen- 
ger, which has a total circulation of about 1G0,000 copies 
monthly, of which 20,000 are sent from the depository 
in Boston. The child's paper is also published by this 
society ; the circulation is about 300,000 copies, of which 
28,000 are distributed in New England and the Prov- 
inces. The Family Christian Almanac has been pub- 
lished regularly for the past forty years, and about 
100,000 copies are sold yearly. 

The society has now on its catalogue nearly 700 dis- 
tinct English tracts, and over 700 bound volumes, vary- 
ing in size from the miniature Dew-Drop, a 128 mo, 
to the Family Bible, an octavo of 1,500 pages, many of 
which are beautifully illustrated. Mr. N. P. Kemp, the 
agent of the society for New England, is widely and 
favorably known on account of the active interest he lias 
always manifested in behalf of the Sabbath-school cause ; 
he is a veteran in the Tract Society's service, having been 
connected with it for a period of nearly twenty years. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 163 

Massachusetts Bible Society, No. 15 Cornhill. — 
This society was incorporated Feb. 15, 1810. During 
the year 1865, the number of volumes issued from its 
depository was 40,777 ; of Avhich 12,691 were Bibles ; 
15,436, Testaments ; 6,041, Testaments with the Psalms ; 
and the remainder were smaller portions of the Scrip- 
tures. The gratuitous circulation amounted to 10,526 
volumes, costing $3,811.50. 

The income of the society, including a balance on 
hand at the beginning of the year 1865 of $2,253.48, 
and $5,000 from invested funds, has been $36,769.13. 

The American Education Society, No. 15 Corn- 
hill, has for its object the education of pious young men 
for the gospel ministry. It was organized Dec. 7, 1815, 
and incorporated in 1816. "The work of the society 
rests back upon that grand apostolic principle, ' How 
shall they hear without a preacher ? and how shall they 
preach except they be sent ? ' " Rev. Increase N. Tarbox; 
is secretary of the society. 

Nearly all of the societies mentioned in this chapter 
hold their annual meetings in May. The anniversary 
or public meetings of the most of them being held in 
Tremont Temple, which on these occasions is generally 
filled with attentive and delighted audiences. 

There are other societies which deserve notice ; as 
The Boston Seaman's Friend Society, Alpheus Hardy, 



164 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

president, Thomas D. Quincy, treasurer, No. 40 Com- 
mercial Street. 

The society, in the year 1865, furnished a hundred 
and forty libraries to ships' companies. Among those 
interested in the welfare of sailors, as their untiring 
friend, Capt. Bartlett will be long remembered. 

At the Mariners' Church, corner of Summer and Fed- 
eral Streets, the regular ministrations of the gospel are 
attended on the Sabbath. In connection with this ser- 
vice, there is a Bible class for seamen, conducted by the 
chaplain. Rev. J. M. H. Dow. There is also a Sabbath 
school, numbering about a hundred scholars. 

At the Sailors' Home, No. 99 Purchase Street, there 
were received as boarders, between May, 1865, and May, 
1866, over seventeen hundred seamen, seventy-four of 
whom had been shipwrecked, and were destitute. 

The Boston Port Society, Rev. E. T. Taylor, chaplain, 
Charles H. Parker, treasurer, is at No. SOTremont Street. 

The Baptist Bethel, corner of Hanover and North Ben- 
nett Streets, Rev. Phinehas Stowe, chaplain, began in 
1840, with fourteen members. It now numbers 354, 
and is in a highly flourishing condition. 

The Mariners' Exchange, incorporated in 1864, is on 
the corner of Lewis and Commercial Streets : Rev. Phin- 
ehas Stowe is president, and Rev. E. M. Buyrn, chap- 
lain. It is doing an important service for seamen. 



BOSTON AND VICINITr. 165 

The Boston Episcopal Mission for Seamen, Rev. John 
T. Burrill, rector, has been instrumental to a very grati- 
fying extent in meeting the sailors' spiritual necessities, 
and in providing for their temporal wants. Services are 
held at the chapel every Sunday, both in the morning 
and evening : there is also a weekly prayer-meeting. 

Free Church of St. Mary's, Rev. J. P. Robinson, rec- 
tor. Sunday service : morning prayer and service at 
quarter-past ten, a.m. ; evening prayer and sermon at 
half-past seven, p.m. ; and an evening prayer and lecture 
on Friday evening. Sunday school : two sessions, begin- 
ning at nine, a.m., and half-past two, p.m. The Sunday 
school continues to enjoy its wonted prosperity, under ex- 
cellent and efficient teachers. 

Shipwrecked and destitute seamen have ever found 
sympathy and aid in St. Mary's. The ladies of the Sail- 
ors' Aid Society have by their efforts enabled the rector 
to assist many persons and families. 

The American Unitariaji Association was organized 
in 1824, and incorporated in 1847. The rooms of the as- 
sociation and depository are at No. 26 Chauncy Street. 
The Hon. John G. Palfrey is president. 



CHAPTER XXL 



HORTICULTURAL BUILDING. — GREAT ORGAN. 




— -* ^fistu-otS^^^^ 



This elegant edifice, the Homestead of the Massachu- 
setts Horticultural Society, is located on Tremont Street, 
between Bromfield Street and Montgomery Place, nearly 
opposite the Tremont House. It is built of Concord 

166 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 167 

granite, with a front of fifty-five feet on Tremont Street, 
extending on Bromfield Street ninety feet : it is three 
stories high, and is an ornament to that part of the city. 
Its style is the Renaissance, a peculiar style of decoratio/ 
revived by Raphael in the pontificate of Leo X., re- 
sulting from, but freer than, the antique : popular in Eu- 
rope, and becoming so in this country. The front facade 
is separated into three divisions, and is imposing. The 
centre is decorated with an order of coupled columns, 
repeated in pilasters behind, and carried through the 
three stories ; Doric in the first, Ionic in the second, and 
Corinthian in the third. The whole facade is crowned 
by a rich composed cornice, surmounted by a central 
attic, as a pedestal for a handsome figure of Ceres cut in 
white granite, from the celebrated antique in the Vatican 
at Rome. The front angles are decorated with project- 
ing piers, forming bases at the top of the first story for 
figures of Pomona and Flora. 

The first story consists of stores, two fronting on Tre- 
mont Street, and the remaining four on Bromfield Street. 
The front staircase, ten feet in width, with marble steps, 
is carried up between the two stores on Tremont Street. 
Ascending the staircase, the second story is reached, 
which contains one of the exhibition-halls, fifty-one by 
fifty-seven feet, spanning the width of the building, and 
lighted by three large windows on each side. Besides 



168 BOSTON AND VICINITr. 

this hall, there are four large apartments to the west of 
it ; two for the library, and two for the offices of the su- 
perintendent and treasurer. The height of the rooms is 
seventeen feet in the clear. The third story is devoted 
to the principal exhibition-hall, which occupies nearly 
its whole length, and is seventy-seven feet nine inches 
long, fifty feet six inches wide, and twenty-six feet high. 
It has a stage recess of about ten by twenty-four feet, in 
the rear of which is a lobby, eleven by twenty-five feet, 
over which is a gallery the whole Avidth of the hall. 

The halls are finished and decollated in a style uniform 
with the exterior. The lower one has Ionic pilasters, 
and the ceiling and walls are panelled and ornamented 
with mouldings and drops. The upper hall has a beau- 
tiful coved ceiling, resting on a modillioned Ionic cornice, 
supported on enriched pilasters. The doorways are 
ornamented with rich architraves and pedimented heads. 
The hall is a very attractive one for lectures or concerts, 
and its beauty and location will doubtless cause it to be 
much in demand. The building was designed by G. J. 
F. Bryant, and Arthur Oilman. 

Washburn & Co., occupying one of the stores on the 
first story of this new Horticultural Building, have just 
issued " The Amateur Cultivator's Guide to the Flower 
and Kitchen Garden," which is really the most elegant 
and attractive book of the kind we have yet seen. It con- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 169 

tains over fifty illustrations, with 1 28 pages of descriptive 
matter, with lists of prices of both seeds and plants, and 
will be sent to any part of the United States or Canada 
on the receipt of only twenty-five cents. 

The Great Organ in the Music Hall, Winter Street, 
may truly be called one of the chief attractions of 
Boston. It was inaugurated on Monday evening, Nov. 
2, 1863, and cost above fifty thousand dollars. 

" In gazing upon the grand case of the instrument, or 
the organ-house (orgel-gelmuse) ^ as the Germans call it, 
the first impression is that of perfect symmetry and har- 
mony, both in its component parts and its relations to the 
hall. The structure may be generally divided into two 
grand parts ; the upper portion containing the pipes, and 
the lower portion, or base, supporting the many columns. 
The fagade, which is about fifty feet wide, shows four 
grand towers, two of which are circular, and stand bold- 
ly out from the centre, coming forward eighteen feet 
upon the stage, the wings falling towards two smaller 
and square towers." In height, from platform to the 
summit of the tower, it measures sixty feet. 

" The breath of this mighty instrument is furnished 
by twelve pairs of bellows, which are operated by water- 
power." 

The organ is played by a competent performer, "Wednes- 
days and Saturdays, from twelve, M., to one, p.m. 
15 



CHAPTER XXII. 

new-england historic-genealogical society. — sons 

of temperance. washingtonian home. home 

for little wanderers. 

The New-England Historic-Genealogical Soci- 
ety. — This society was incorporated March 18, 1845. 
At the close of the first year, it was composed of thirty- 
seven members, most of whom were among our first cit- 
izens. It has increased gradually, and now consists of 
four hundred. The late Charles Ewer, Esq., one of the 
five originators, was the first president. They hold their 
meetings in a fine, spacious room, at No. 1 3 Bromfield 
Street, which is generally open from nine, a.m., till the 
evening. 

The society principally depends on a regular annual 
assessment for defraying its incidental expenses ; and on 
donations for its books, documents, &c. It has met with a 
most liberal encouragement ; and although it commenced 
with a few rare and antique works and neglected pam- 
phlets, yet at the monthly meeting, Oct. 3, 1866, the 

171 



172 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

librarian reported 6,786 bound volumes, and 20,242 
pamphlets of various kinds belonging to the library. 
Among these are twenty bound volumes of the Direct 
Tax, 1798, for Massachusetts, precious for the certainty 
of facts concerning our citizens and their estates at that 
time ; also 170 volumes of family genealogy ; and 159 
tow^n histories, which are next in value as it regards an- 
cestry. Rymer's Foedera, in nineteen folio volumes, and 
a fine selection of works on heraldry, might be named ; 
also a curious old manuscript volume in parchment, beau- 
tifully executed, of chants, the musical notes in square, or 
angular forms, — a choral work from a Florence monas- 
tery. There are a few articles for the nucleus of a mu- 
seum, such as a piece of a statue from the Greek temple 
of Bacchus, in Candia, overthrown by an earthquake six 
hundred years before Christ, presented to the society by 
G. Mountfort, Esq., United-States Consul ; also a frag- 
ment of the timber of an ancient ship, discovered on the 
eastern shore of Cape Cod, supposed to have been buried 
in the sands for more than two centuries, of which an 
account may be seen in the New-England Historic and 
Genealogical Register. 

Membership is obtained upon a written nomination of 
the candidate by some member of the society ; and after 
an election the acceptance must be in writing, wherein 
some notice of his descent is requested, w^hen conve- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 173 

nient. On the death of a member, his character is no- 
ticed by the historiographer at the monthly meeting, and 
a more or less extended account of his life is given. From 
this department, which has been conducted with much 
research and ability, they are supplied with many valua- 
ble pieces of biography dear to friends, and nowhere else 
to be found out of the archives. 

The publication of the New-England Historic and 
Genealogical Register, under the auspices of this society, 
is in itself a lasting monument of their success and use- 
fulness. It is a vast reservoir of historical and genea- 
logical facts touching New England, and this year will 
complete twenty volumes. 

Sons of Temperance, — Few strangers visit Boston 
who are not members of some of the affiliated societies 
of the present day. From the masonic institution, or 
rather in consequence of it, numerous other societies, 
based on principles similar to theirs, but having some 
specific object to which their attention was more partic- 
ularly given, have been organized. Two fynong these, 
the Odd Fellows, with their system of weekly benefits to 
sick members, and the Sons of Temperance, making 
the total-abstinence pledge their prominent feature, have 
become the most numerous ; and few cities or large towns 
in the United States are without a Division of Sons of 

Temperance. Ladies are admitted to their meetings, but 
15* 



174 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

are not counted as members. In this city, they are quite 
numerous, having in their connection about two thousand 
members, and a larger number of ladies ; while there 
are more than ten thousand members in the State of 
Massachusetts. 

Active exertions are being made by them at the pres- 
ent time to build for their use a hall worthy of the great 
cause they are banded together to perpetuate ; and we 
hope before many years to present to our readers an en- 
graving of a building devoted to their uses, which will 
be an ornament to our city. The names of those earnest 
in this matter, and active in promoting the interests of 
this order, are a guaranty that what is done will be well 
done. Their principal officers for the present year are, 
Isaac W. May, G. W. P. ; Samuel W. Hodges, G. Scribe. 

The Washingtonian Home, which is represented on 
the following page, is located at No. 887 "Washington 
Street, near the corner of Dover Street. It was origi- 
nally organized Nov. 5, 1857, and incorporated March 
26, 1859. It is an asylum for mebriates, and for those 
unfortunates who require some extraneous assistance to 
enable them to break the ties with which the appetite for 
stimulants has bound them ; and is conducted on a prin- 
ciple peculiar to itself. 

It was originally started by a few philanthropic and 
considerate men, who thought this class, so susceptible 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



175 



to temptation, needed proper seclusion until the immedi- 
ate effects of stimulants could be removed, and after- 
wards such care and influences as would appeal to the 
higher and nobler motives of their nature to complete 




the work of reformation. It commenced in a most hum- 
ble way, with very small resources and limited accom- 
modations ; but such was the success attending it from 
its commencement, that it has been obliged to change its 



176 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

location for more extensive accommodations three times 
within the first six years of its existence ; and already 
finds its present building insufficient to accommodate the 
increasing number of its patients, of which it has already 
had very many, principally from Boston and other parts 
of the State, but including a large number from almost 
all the other States, and the British Provinces. A very 
large proportion of its graduates are now regarded as 
thoroughly reformed men. 

Patients are expected to pay in proportion to their 
ability, and the accommodations enjoyed. An annual 
sum is appropriated by the Legislature, which is em- 
ployed in the support of a certain number of free patients, 
who, however, must be residents of Massachusetts. 

Confinement is not resorted to, except in extreme cases ; 
and it is the aim of the conductors of the institution to 
render a residence within it agreeable, by surrounding 
the patient, as far as possible, with the comforts and en- 
joyments of a home. The gentlemen who have so far 
conducted the institution have every reason to believe, 
from the success attending it, that the method they have 
adopted is the best, if not the only true, method for deal- 
ing with this large and unfortunate class. 

Much of its success is owing to the affection enter- 
tained for the Home by those who have been benefited 
by it, and to their enthusiastic efforts in its behalf ; and 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 177 

much also to the unwearied labors of its intelligent and 
Christian superintendent, Dr. Albert Day, whose name 
is inseparably identified with the most successful attempts 
at the reformation of the inebriate. 

Baldwin-Place Home for Little Wanderers. — 
This institution was incorporated March 24, 1865. It is 
in every sense an outgrowth of Christian charity. Ten 
good men felt that something must be done for the perish- 
ing poor children of the city. They found, upon exami- 
nation, that thousands of them were growing up in utter 
destitution and ignorance, and that more than fifteen hun- 
dred were annually carted off" to the prisons of the city. 
These facts were of fearful significance, showing the use- 
lessness of endeavoring to reform adult criminals while 
their ranks were so largely recruited each year from the 
neglected little ones of the streets. Hitherto strangers to 
each other, but impelled by a common impulse, these 
gentlemen came together. Their deliberations resulted 
in the giving of fifty thousand dollars. With this amount 
a building was purchased, and, through the generous co- 
operation of the churches, fitted up and furnished. The 
preamble to its constitution details specifically the rea- 
sons for organizing, and the beneficent objects they had 
in view. One object was that of placing homeless chil- 
dren in homes. In less than one year after its organiza- 
tion, it secured homes for over three hundred ; and very 



178 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

nearly one-half thus located have thus far been received 
from cities and villages outside of Boston. The insti- 
tution is therefore not local in its operations : it invites 
homeless children from all New England. 

It was felt also that no creed should be stamped upon 
its charities ; hence five leading denominations of Chris- 
tians are represented on its board of managers ; and such 
are its provisions, that no one denomination can ever ob- 
tain other than its proportionate power in the manage- 
ment of the institution. The public has therefore the 
guaranty that its offerings will be judiciously expended, 
-without reference to color, nationality, or creed. 

The first anniversary of this institution was held May 
22, 18G6. From the annual report presented on that 
occasion, we learn that over seven hvmdred destitute chil- 
dren were received, clothed, fed, and otherwise cared for, 
during the year. Its work is divided into three depart- 
ments. 

1st, Every homeless child is provided with a carefully 
selected Christian home, no matter where the child comes 
from. In regard to the homes provided, it may be added 
that children are not put in them as servants. Every 
person who takes one is compelled to treat it as a mem- 
ber of his family, bi'ing it up to some useful occupation, 
and give it the advantages of a good common school edu- 
cation. Then, in the neighborhood where they are 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 179 

located, agents are appointed to look after them, and see 
that they are cared for, and make changes when they 
become necessary. 

2d, A large class of poor but worthy mothers are 
made beggars by their little children. They cannot take 
them when they go to seek or do work ; nor leave them 
at home, because they have no one to care for them. To 
benefit this class, the institution has opened a large nurs- 
ery, where the mother may leave her little ones during 
the day, go out and do her day's work, and obtain them 
again at night. Much suffering is prevented, and great 
good is being done, in this way. 

3d, There are thousands of children in the city who 
cannot go to the public schools. Their rags and poverty 
shut them out. They are unable to pay for an educa- 
tion ; and such is their poverty, that they cannot avail 
themselves of a gratis one. The institution is gathering 
in this class of children, giving them food and clothing, 
and, with the bread of charity, giving them also food for 
the mind. 

Various religious meetings are also held in the insti- 
tution, to which the poor of the city are urged to come. 

Rev. R. G. Toles is the superintendent. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

BOSTON HOTELS. — CHARITIES. — FIRE-TELEGRAPH. 

An interesting subject of inquiry to the traveller, as he 
approaches a sti'ange city, is, at what house of entertain- 
ment he shall stop. When after his arrival, rested and 
refreshed, he moves through its apartments in ineffectual 
search of occupation for his mind (for neither our hotels 
nor our railway stations are made too cheerful or attract- 
ive), his imagination recurs to the probable experiences 
of parents, kindred, or friends who may have been in 
the place before him. It would be a difficult task, out 
of the materials we possess, to present any complete his- 
torical sketch of the inns and ordinaries of Boston in 
early, or even more recent days ; but a few of those of 
most note deserve some mention. 

Mr. Drake tells us, that in 1634, Samuel Cole opened 
the first tavern. It was situated on the M'est side of Mer- 
chants' Row, about midway between Dock Square and 
State, then King Street. Others soon followed ; and we 
find frequent allusion made before 1700, to the State 
Arras in King Street, corner of what is now Exchange 
180 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 181 

Street ; Ship, in Ann Street, 1666 ; King's Arms, kept 
by Thomas Venner, on Fore Street ; King's Head, 1691, 
Scarlett's Wharf, near Fleet Street ; Red Lion, near 
Richmond Street, 1666-1766; Castle, 1675-1693, on 
Mackerel Lane, now Congress Street ; and the Green- 
dragon Tavern, on Union Street, 1696-1824. 

After 1700, we find the Blue Anchor ; Star, in Hano- 
ver Street ; Swan, 1708 ; Queen's Head, 1732, near Fleet 
Street ; the Bight of Logan, now " Bite," on Dock 
Square ; Ci'oss, corner of Cross and Ann Streets, 1732 ; 
Crown Coffee House, foot of King Street, 1724 ; Bimch 
of Grapes, 1724, King, corner of Kilby Street; Royal 
Exchange, King, corner of Exchange Street, 1727 ; Ad- 
miral Vernon, 1743-1745, corner of King Street and 
Merchants' Row; Red Cross, 1746; Salutation, 1731, 
on Ship Street, so called from its sign of two men, in 
the fashionable dress of the times, meeting, and shaking 
hands ; British CoiFee House, King Street, above Mer- 
chants' Row; Cromwell's Head, 1760, School Street; 
King's Arms, or George's Tavern, on the Neck, near 
Roxbury line, where the General Court sate in 1721 ; 
Holland's, corner of Howard Street, afterwards Pember- 
ton House; Swan, Cornhill, 1755; White Horse, Hay- 
ward Place, 1724-1760 ; Three Horse Shoes, near Com- 
mon Street, 1744-1775; Swan, South End, 1784; In- 
dian Queen, Bromfield Street, and Golden Ball. 
16 



182 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

Of the above, the State Arms, King Street, in 1653, 
was noted as the place where the magistrates used to re- 
sort. The ship, corner of Clark and Ann Streets, was 
kept by Vials in 1666 ; and there, on the evening of 
the 18th of January of that year, Sir Robert Carr, the 
royal commissioner, made merry with his friends. It 
was Saturday evening, and by the laws of that period a 
part of the Sabbath ; and carousing there at such a time 
was a penal offence. Being arrested by Arthur Mason, 
constable, he remonstrated at so great an indignity to the 
king's representative ; but Mason replied that he should 
have arrested the king himself had he been there, and 
broken the law. About seven o'clock, Sept. 5, 1769, the 
patriot James Otis, who had posted the commissioners 
of customs for some similar affront to himself, entered 
the British Coffee House, standing on King Street, on 
the site of the Massachusetts Bank, where Robinson, 
one of the commissioners, was sitting in company with a 
number of army, navy, and revenue officers. An alter- 
cation took place ; blows were interchanged, and Mr. 
Otis was seriously injured by a blow on the head with a 
brass candlestick, from the effects of which he never 
completely recovered. The Royal Exchange, on a por- 
tion of the site of the Merchants' Bank, was long among 
the most prominent of the taverns ; and auction-sales 
and business-meetings often took place there. Near the 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 183 

market was the Roebuck Inn. The house of most his- 
torical interest, from having been the headquarters and 
place of most frequent resort of the Liberty Boys in the 
troublous times preceding the Revolution, was the Green- 
dragon Tavern, on Union Street, for a long period owned 
by St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons, to whom the es- 
tate still belongs. 

For a long period after the town was settled, strangers 
arrived for the most part by sea ; and the inns were near 
the water. But, as the population increased, the roads 
were more travelled ; and, about the middle of the last 
century, public conveyances came in vogue. With them 
sprang up such taverns as are still found in country 
places. The Eastern-stage House, on Ann Street, be- 
tween Cross and Centre Streets, the Elm-street House, 
City Tavern on Brattle Street, Earl's on Hanover Street, 
were all famous in their day for fine teams of horses and 
merry drivers ; none surpassing in speed or pleasantry 
whips who averaged ten miles an hour on the Portsmouth 
Road. 

The French Revolution brought to Boston its share of 
emigres^ and likewise a taste for French cooking ; and, 
early in the present century, Julien established a cele- 
brated eating-house on Milk Street. The service was on 
silver, and the guest himself selected from the capacious 
larder hung round with a tempting display of birds and 



184 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

venison, or viands more substantial. On Congress and 
Devonshire Streets, near State Street, was built, about 
the year 1804, the largest hotel, up to that time, in the 
country, — the Boston Exchange. It was consumed by 
fire in 1818. Henry Clay was stopping there, and it is 
said he was engaged in his favorite game of cards when 
the fire broke out. He carried his cards to the sidewalk, 
and as the light of the fire showed what they were, he 
remarked to his companion, in a tone expressive of his 
disappointment at not being permitted to finish the 
game, that he held three white aces, the best hand in the 
pack. Mr. Hallowell's house on Batterymarch Street, 
became the Sun Tavern. The Commercial Coffee House, 
near by, on Milk Street, was large and liberally patron- 
ized. Hatch's house, opposite the Common, near West 
Street, the Pearl-street House, the Lion, and the Lamb, 
have all passed away ; but the Marlborough and Adams 
on Washington Street, Pavilion on Tremont Street, Al- 
bion on Beacon Street, Bromfield on Bromfield Street, 
American on Hanover Street, New England on Clin- 
ton Street, Merrimack on Merrimack Street, Massachu- 
setts on Endicott Street, Hancock on Court Square, 
Quincy on Brattle Street, all good houses, have taken 
their place. 

Of the more expensive class, the Tremont House, 
opened in 1830, the Revere, on Bowdoin Square, have 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 185 

each in turn started a new era in hotel accommodation. 
Both were long under the charge of Mr. Parau Stevens, 
who at the same time leased the Fifth-avenue Hotel in 
New York, and Continental in Philadelphia. Parker's 
marble palace, on School Street, is kept on a diiferent 
plan from the rest ; the charges for board and lodging 
being distinct. Young's Hotel, Cornhill Court, on the 
same plan, is also much resorted to for social and festal 
purposes, political gatherings, and business meetings. 
Though not in the city, the Taft House, at Point Shirley, 
is widely known for its exquisite game dinners. So ma- 
ny people reside at a distance from their places of busi- 
ness, that innumerable restaurants, eating-houses, and 
confectioneries, are to be found in the central parts of 
the city. These are too numerous for any list to be 
attempted. There are also many large buildings where 
apartments can be had, either with or without accommo- 
dations for food ; such as the Coolidge House, Pelham 
Hotel, Evans House, and Wiuthrop House, 34 Bowdoin 
Street, corner of Allston. 

Charities. — The curiosity of the intelligent stranger 
will be naturally attracted to our institutions and associ- 
ations for the relief of want. Several of these, and 
amongst them the Massachusetts and City General Hos- 
pitals, the McLean Asylum for the Insane, at Somer- 

ville, and Washingtonian Home, have been already men- 
16* 



186 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

tioned. Besides these, the City Lunatic Asylum, at 
South Boston, soon to be located at Winthrop ; the Hos- 
pital for Women and Children, on Pleasant Street ; the 
Good Samaritan, on McLean Street ; the Carney Catho- 
lic, at South Boston ; the Ryan, or Channing Home for 
Incurables, on South Street ; the State, on Rainsford 
Island ; the Naval and Marine, at Chelsea ; the Eye and 
Ear Infirmary, on Charles Street, — are the most impor- 
tant. Contagious diseases are treated at the Small-pox 
Hospital near the south city stables, at Rainsford Island, 
or at Deer Island. There have been during the war 
many houses and hospitals for soldiers, of which the 
Home in Springfield Street has been most generously 
supported. These will soon be closed. A large fund is 
accumulating for a Lying-in Hospital, which amounts to 
nearly a hundred thousand dollars. Institutions for 
chronic cases, paralytics, foundlings, and consumptive 
patients, are thought by some to be needed, although the 
latter class are in part provided for by Dr. Cutler's pri- 
vate retreat on Vernon Street. 

At No. 18 Kneeland Street, and No. 32 Rutland Street, 
are Refuges for females. Missions for relief and reform 
are established at No. 144 Hanover Street, and at No. 
80 North Street; and for mariners at No. 247 North 
Street. At No. 16 Tremont Temple, at the Homes for 
the Destitute, No. 24 Kneeland Street, St. Stephen's, Pur- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 187 

chase Street, and at the City Temporary, No. 36 Charles 
Street, numbers find board or lodging, aid in regaining 
their homes or in finding employment. Another institu- 
tion has been established on Sudbury Street for similar 
objects. 

The Asylum for the Blind, at South Boston, with 
which is connected the Massachusetts School for Idiotic 
and Feeble-minded Youth, are under the charge of 
' Dr. Samuel G. Howe, the eminent philanthropist. The 
Old Ladies' Home, by the water, near Charles Street, 
has over one hundred inmates, and that for Aged Men, 
established in 1861, about twenty-four : one for colored 
females, on the Back Bay, is nearly ready for occupation. 
Asylums for children are numerous. Of these, are the 
Farm School, at Thompson's Island ; Female Orphan, 
Washington Street ; Children's Friend, Rutland Street ; 
St. Vincent's, Camden Street ; Church Home, Charles 
Street ; and the Baldwin-place Home for Little Wander- 
ers, already noticed. There is at Newton a refuge for 
juvenile offenders, and truants are sent to Deer Island. 
At Roxbury is the House of the Angel Guardian, with 
about five hundred pupils. At Deer Island are the City 
Alms-house, House of Industry, House of Reformation, 
and a Small-pox Hospital. At South Boston, the House 
of Correction. On Gallop's Island, accommodation has 
been prepared for persons coming from infected ships or 



188 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

places. The State institutions, besides the State Prison 
at Charlestown, and Hospital at Rainsford Island, men- 
tioned elsewhere, are three Lunatic Asylums, at North- 
ampton, Worcester, and Taunton ; three alms-houses, at 
Monson, Bridgewater, and Td'wksbury ; the Reform 
School for boys, at Westborough, for girls at Lancaster, 
and two School Ships. As these institutions are filled 
as much from Boston as from other parts of the State, 
they are thus briefly alluded to. They are under the care 
of the board of State charities. Dr. Wheelwright, the 
agent, has an oflSce in the State House. One hundred 
thousand dollars is expended annually through this board 
for the non-settlement poor who are sick, and too ill to 
be removed to an alms-house. Under the State-aid Acts, 
large sums are distributed to the families of those who 
served in the late war. 

The other agencies for the relief of the poor at their 
own homes are numerous. The overseers of the poor, 
who have trust funds to the amount of two hundred thou- 
sand dollars in value, and liberal appropriations from the 
city council, relieve all who have settlements in the city, 
now including soldiers who have served on its quota. 
They relieve also destitute persons having settlements 
elsewhere in the State, at the expense of the settlement 
fowns. 

Where education is so general, and, amongst our native- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 189 

born population, the average capital for each inhabitant 
exceeds two thousand dollars, and where industrial em- 
ployments are varied and prosperous, the proportion of 
the helpless poor is naturally small ; and even these are, 
for the most part, supported by their relatives and friends, 
by churches, or mutual-aid societies. But the numbers 
here, born abroad, infirm, aged, or helpless, impose a 
heavy if not unwelcome burthen on the charity of the 
city. This has led to the organization of various socie- 
ties for their relief, through whose agency large sums 
are distributed. 

Of these we can notice only the more considerable. 
The Provident Association, No. 284 Washington Street ; 
the Howard Benevolent ; Young Men's Benevolent ; 
many church and city missions, including the esteemed 
Father Cleveland's ; the Fatherless and Widows', Wid- 
ows' and Singlewomen's, Female Samaritan, British, 
Irish, Hibernian, Scotch, Scandinavian, Boston Episco- 
pal Charitable ; and mutual aid societies, such as the Free- 
masons, Odd Fellows, Massachusetts Charitable, — are 
some of the chief. The Industrial aid Society, for find- 
ing employment for the poor, having its offices under the 
church on Bowdoin Square, and the Needlewoman's 
Friend Society, on Channing Place, are also among the 
principal. The Warren-street Chapel, the Old South 
Chapel on Chambers Street, and the Young Mens' Chris- 



190 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

tian Association at the Tremont Temple, exert a happy 
religious and moral influence over the poor. 

To enable these various societies to Avork in concert, 
prevent imposition, and extend every possible and rea- 
sonable assistance to the deserving, the city council, in 
December, 1864, authorized, on condition that thirty 
thousand dollars should be contributed at large, the erec- 
tion of a central relief building, in which the overseers, 
and such of the charitable societies as might desire it, or 
would be accommodated, should be under the same roof. 
Opportunity will thus be afforded to sensible persons en- 
gaged in the duty of almsgiving, to confer, compare 
opinions, and to further in concert plans for the relief of 
new forms of distress. It will admit of the system of 
registration and investigation, and those in need can be 
more speedily made again dependent on their own exer- 
tions and resources. In the same building, it might be"* 
wished that the Board of State Charities and Alien Com- 
missioners should also have their offices. It would be 
of advantage to have near it the City Temporary Home, 
now in Charles Street, where food is furnished to the 
destitute, and lodgings to women and children who are 
homeless. 

Medical advice is given, and surgical operations are 
performed gratuitously, at the hospitals ; and at the Bos- 
ton Dispensary, on Bennett Street, on several days in the 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 191 

week, medicines are also distributed to the poor ; aud its 
physicians attend at their dwellings without charge. 

The Fire-alarm Telegraph. — The system of tele- 
graphic fire alarm was originated by Dr. William F. 
Channing, of Boston, and Moses G. Farmer, of Salem. 

As early as 1845, Dr. Channing, in a lecture delivered 
before the Smithsonian Institute, suggested the employ- 
ment of the telegraph as a means of giving alarms of fire. 

In 1848, the subject was brought before the city gov- 
ernment of Boston by the mayor ; and two machines for 
striking the city bells from a distance, by means of the 
telegraph, were constructed under the direction of Moses 
G. Farmer, Esq., one of the ablest and most ingenious 
telegraphic engineers in the country. Ono of these ma- 
chines was placed in the belfry of the Boston City Hall, 
and connected with the line of telegraphs extending to 
New York ; and the telegraph-operator in New York, by 
tapping on the key, struck the bell on the City Hall sev- 
eral times, thereby causing a false alarm of fire in Boston. 
This was the first exhibition of the capacities of the fire- 
alarm telegraph. 

In 1851, the city government of Boston appropriated 
ten thousand dollars to test the system. The construc- 
tion and mechanical arrangements were intrusted to the 
charge of Mr. Moses G. Farmer, and during the next year 
were brought by him into successful operation. 



192 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

The fire-alarm office is situated in the dome of the City 
Hall. From this point, wires radiate to all parts of the 
city. At the present time, seventy-five signal stations, or 
boxes, plainly numbered, are located at convenient points 
about the city, and are in communication Avith the cen- 
tral office by means of the wires, which being constantly 
charged with electricity, are ready to communicate au 
alarm at any moment. This is done by simply turning 
a crank, which starts the instrument in the box, and tele- 
graphs its number to the central office, and continues to 
repeat its number as long as the crank is turned. The 
operator on duty at the City Hall receives upon a register 
the number thus transmitted, and communicates it to the 
firemen by striking upon all the alarm-bells, of which 
there are upwards of thirty. To illustrate the striking 
of the bells for an alarm of fire, we give the two follow- 
ing numbers, — 24 and 175. To announce No, 24, the 
operator at the central station strikes upon the alarm-bells 
two blows, and after a pause of two or three seconds, 
four blows more, thus indicating the number (24) of the 
box mentioned. This is repeated six or eight times until 
the fii-emen are sufficiently notified of the locality of the 
fire. For box 175, the bells would strike one, seven, 
and five blows, with px'oper intervals, and repeated as 
long as necessary. 

To indicate the true time for the city, a single blow is 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 193 

Struck simultaneously upon all of the alarm-bells, at pre- 
cisely twelve o'clock of each day. Joseph B. Stearns, 
Esq., is the superintendent of the fire-alarm telegraph, 
aided by Charles A. Stearns, and three other assistants. 
In 1858, the city government authorized the construc- 
tion of a police telegraph, which was built under the 
superintendence of Joseph B. Stearns, and connects by 
telegraph-lines the office of the chief of police with the 
police-stations in the diffisrent parts of the city. This 
is used for police purposes only, and is operated at the 
different stations. 

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CHAPTER XXIV. 

CAMBRIDGE. — OLD FORTIFICATIONS, HARVARD INSTITUTE, 
GORE HALL, WASHINGTON HOUSE, RIEDESEL HOUSE, 
"WASHINGTON ELM. MOUNT AUBURN. 

Taking the cars from Bowdoiu Square, it takes but a 
short time to be landed in Cambridge. At the corner of 
luman Street stands an old mansion, shaded by noble trees, 
find with an ample lawn in front. Previous to the Revolu- 
tion it was owned and occupied by Ralph Inman, a wealthy 
tory, who was unceremoniously dispossessed, and his fine 
house assigned as head quarters to the redoubtable General 
Putnam. The street which leads up to the side entrance 
of the house perpetuates the name of its original owner. 

The ridge of land called Dana Hill, which is approached 
by an almost imperceptible ascent, forms the natural 
boundary between the "Port" and "Old Cambridge." 
On the summit of this ridge, on the right hand side of the 
road, was located one of the chain of redoubts erected by 
the Americans at the outset of the revolution. Traces 
of it have been visible within a very few years, but they 
are now obliterated in the march of improvement — that 

17 * 197 



198 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



same spirit of progress which made it necessary to cut a 
road through another old fort, a little beyond the one just 
mentioned, on the opposite side of the way. The land 
never having been required for building purposes, this 
redoubt continued in a good state of preservation, and its 
embankment and fosse were plainly distinguishable. 

Still following the " Main Street," it is not long before 




^C^^'sm 



the turrets of Gore Hall — the hbrary building of the 
university — come in sight, and a side glimpse of the 
other college buildings is obtained through the trees. 
The University Library is divided into four depart- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 199 

ments, viz., Theological, Medical, Law, and College ; 
which last, besides books in all other departments of 
learning, embraces also an extensive collection of works 
on theology, medicine, and law. 

The Theological Library is in Divinity Hall. Per- 
sons entitled to its privileges must be connected with the 
divinity school. Number of books, about 16,000. They 
consist of valuable select works, principally in modern 
theology, with some of the early Fathers. 

The Medical Library is in the Medical College in 
Boston. It is placed there for the convenience of students 
attending the medical lectures. The number of books is 
about 2,000. 

The Law Library is in Dane Hall. It is designed for 
the officers and students of the law school. Number of 
books, about 13,000. It contains most of the valuable 
works in English and American law, and in the civil law, 
together with a variety of others, by writers of France, 
Germany, and Spain. 

Gore Hall is of recent construction. The outer walls 
of the building are of rough Quincy granite, laid in reg- 
ular courses, with hammered-stone buttresses, towers, 
pinnacles, drip-stones, &c. It is in the form of a Latin 
cross, the extreme length of which externally is one hun- 
dred and forty feet, and through the transept eighty-one 
and a half feet. 



200 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

The interior contains a hall one hundred and twelve 
feet long, and thirty-five feet high, with a vaulted ceiling 
supported by twenty ribbed columns. The spaces between 
the columns and side-walls are divided by partitions into 
stalls or alcoves for books, above and below the gallery. 

The public library is for the common use of the whole 
University, in this respect differing from the other 
branches of the University library ; and it may be con- 
sulted, during library hours, by all persons, whether con- 
nected with the University or not. The total number of 
books is about 116,000; of which 1,000 belong to the 
Boylston Medical Library, in immediate connection with it. 
In term time (excepting Christmas Day, New-Year's Day, 
Fast Day, the 4th of July, and the two recesses), the libra- 
ry is open, on the first five secular days of the week, from 
nine, a.m., till one, p.m., and from two, p.m., till five, p.m., 
or till sunset, when that is before five. In the summer 
vacation, it is open from nine to one o'clock every Mon- 
day ; and, in the winter vacation, every Monday, Wednes- 
day, and Friday during the same hours. The total 
number of books in the libraries of the University is 
about 167,500. All persons who wish to have access to 
the library, ©•r to bring their friends to see it, are expect- 
ed to make their visits on the days and within the hours 
above named. 

University Hall is a handsome granite edifice, and 



BOSTON A.ND VICINITY. 201 

contains the old chapel, lecture-rooms, &c. Besides the 
large halls occupied by the undergraduates, there are 
Divinity Hall, appropriated to theological students. Mu- 
seum OF Zoology, Harvard Hall, Appleton Chapel, 
BoYLSTON Hall, &c. A large observatory is furnished 
with one of the largest and finest telescopes in the vrorld. 
The Legislative Government is vested in a corporation, 
which consists of the president and six fellows, and a 
board of overseers, composed of the president and treas- 
urer, ex officiis, together with thirty others, elected by the 
alumni. The faculty of instruction, embracing the pro- 
fessional and scientific schools, consists of the president, 
forty-five professors, five tutors, and several teachers. 
The degree of Bachelor of Arts is conferred at the close 
of a course of four years' study. There are very liberal 
funds appropriated to the support of students who require 
assistance in the prosecution of their studies. The term 
of study for the divinity school is three years ; that of the 
law school, two years. The law school, which enjoys a 
high repute, was established in 1817. The lectures to 
the medical students are delivered at the Massachusetts 
Medical College, in Boston. A degree of M. D. is con- 
ferred only upon those students who have attended the 
courses of lectures, and spent three years under the tui- 
tion of a regular physician. 



202 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

From an ancient manuscript copy of " (IlIE LAWES 
And orders of harvard COLLEDGE " agreed 
upon April 2, 1655, we take the following : — 

Every one shall so exercise himselfe in reading the Scrip- 
tures twice every day that he shall bee ready to give ac- 
count of his proficiency therein, both in theoreticall obser- 
vations of Language & Logicke, & in practicall & Spir- 
ituall truths as his Tutor shall require, according to their 
severall standings respectively. Seeing the entrance of 
the word gives Light. Psal, 119. 130. 

All Students shall eschew the profanation of God's holy 
Name, Attributes, Word, or Ordinances & Times of wor- 
ship and in the publique assemblyes they shall carefully 
eschew whatsoever may shew any contempt or neglect 
thereof and be ready to give an account to their Tutors of 
their profitting & to use such helpes of storing themselves 
with knowledge, as their Tutors shall direct. 

The foundation of Harvard University is one of the 
most honorable events in the history of Massachusetts. 
In 1636, six years only after the settlement of Boston, 
the General Court appropriated four himdred pounds for 
the establishment of a school or college at Cambridge, 
then called Newtown. When we consider the scantiness 
of the colonial resources, and the value of money at that 
time, the allowance appears no less than munificent. The 
colonial records mention this appropriation in the follow- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 203 

ing terms : " The coiivt agreed to give four hundred pounds 
towards a school or college, whereof two hundred pounds 
be paid the next year, and two hundred pounds when the 
work is finished, and the next court to appoint where and 
what building." The colonists were then involved in the 
Pequod war. Savage says the sum was " equal to a year's 
rate of the whole colony." But the college owes its exist- 
ence in fact — for it is doubtful whether the legislature 
would have carried their plans beyond the establishment 
of a grammar school — to the liberaHty of an Enghsh 
clergyman, the Rev. John Harvard, who died in Charles- 
town in 1638. Very little is known respecting this 
benefactor of learning. His birthplace, even, cannot be 
ascertained. He was, however, a man of education, hav- 
ing graduated at Cambridge University, England : he 
preached in Charlestown, where he died about a year 
after his ai-rival in the country. Harvard left by will 
one-half of his estate, about £800, to the school which 
the legislature had established in Newtown. His bequest 
gave a vigorous impetus to the new establishment, and the 
General Court at once detennined to erect it into a col- 
lege, -to be called Harvard, in commemoration of its bene- 
factor ; while in honor of the classic seat of learning in 
the mother country, where so many of the colonists had 
been educated, the name of Newtown was changed to 
that of Cambridge. " It pleased God," says a contempo- 



204 BOSTON AND VICINITT. 

rary writer, " to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a 
godly gentleman and lover of learning then living among 
us) to give one half of his estate towards the erection of 
a college, and all his library." 

" When," says Edward Everett, in his addi'ess delivered 
at the erection of a monument to John Harvard, in the 
graveyard at Ciuirlestown, September 2G, 1828, " we think 
of the mighty importance, in our community, of the sys- 
tem of pubUc instruction, and regard the venerable man 
wliom we commemorate as the first to set the example of 
contributing liberally for the endowment of places of edu- 
cation, (an example faithfully imitated in this region in 
almost every succeeding age,) we cannot, as patriots, 
admit that any honor which it is in our power to pay to 
his memory is beyond his desert." 

The impulse given by John Harvard's generosity placed 
the permanence of the college out of danger. Four years 
after Harvard's death, a class graduated, whose finished 
education reflected the highest credit on their alma mater. 
The university became the pride of the colony. English 
youths were sent hither to receive their education. The 
legislature continued its guardianship and care, and aided 
it by timely donations, while private individuals, animated 
by the spirit and example of Harvard, poured their con- 
tributions and bequests into its treasury. It was richly 
endowed, ;vvl m resources, buildings, libi-ary, and profes- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 205 

worships it takes precedence of all other institutions of 
learning in the country. 

The annual commencement still attracts crowds, and is 
regarded with interest ; and for two centuries it was to 
Cambridge, Boston, and its environs the great event of 
the year: It gathered together all the dignitaries, all the 
learning, and all the beauty and fashion of the laud. The 
university comprises a department for under gi-aduates 
and schools of theology, law, and medicine. A most im- 
portant addition to the educational advantages of Cam- 
bridge was the founding of the Scientific School, in 
1848, by Hon. Abbott Lawrence, with a fund of fifty 
thousand dollars, which has since been largely increased. 
In this school, young men who have not received a classi- 
cal education can be fitted for various departments of 
business, as chemists, civil engineers, navigators, &c. 

On the left, opposite Gore Hall, is seen a large, square, 
old-fasliioned house, at a little distance from the street, 
which was built by Mr. Apthorp, who was a native of 
Boston, but received his education at the university of 
Cambridge, in England, where he took orders, and received 
the appointment of missionary to the newly-established 
church in this place. He is said to have been a very am- 
bitious man, and to have had his eye upon a bishopric, 
which he fondly hoped would be established in New Eng- 
land, having Cambridge for its centre, and himself the 
18 



206 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

metropolitan. It must be confessed that the stately man- 
sion which was erected for his use, still styled " the Bish- 
op's Palace," far surpassing in pretensions the general- 
ity of houses at that day, gives some countenance to the 
traditionary report of his aristocratic predilections. But 
whatever may have been liis expectations, they were 
doomed to disappointment, and his house — the same 
which, a few years after the departure of its original pro- 
prietor, received the haughty Burgoyne beneath its roof, 
not as a master, but as a discomfited prisoner of war — 
yet retains unmistakable traces of its former elegance. 

Let the stranger stroll along the old road to Watertown 
— the Brattle Street of the moderns. Leaving the ven- 
erable Brattle mansion on the left, — now cast into the 
shade by the " Brattle House," erected on a portion of its 
once elegant domain, — and passing beyond the more 
thickly settled part of the village, he will find, on each 
side of the way, spacious edifices, belonging to some foi*- 
mer day and generation; extensive gardens, farms, and 
orchards, evidently of no modern date; and trees whose 
giant forms were the growth of years gone by. Who 
built these stately mansions, so unlike the usual New Eng- 
land dwellings of ancient days, with their spacious lawns, 
shaded by noble elms, and adorned with shrubbery ? Who 
were the proprietors of these elegant seats, which arrest 
the attention and charm the eye of the passing traveller ? 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



207 



Who were the original occupants of these abodes of aris- 
tocratic pride and wealtli, — for such they must have been, 
■ — and whose voices waked the echoes in these lofty halls ? 
A race of men which has passed away forever ! They are 
gone. Their tombs are in a distant land; even their 
names have passed from remembrance ; and nought re- 
mains to tell of their sojourn here save these stately piles, 
whose walls once echoed to the sound of pipe and harp, 




^m 



and whose courts reverberated with the notes of their 
national anthem. 
Prominent among these residences of the royalists of 



208 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

olden time is tliat of Colonel John Vassall, which became 
in July, 1775, the head quarters of General Washington ; 
an edifice even more elegant and spacious than its fellows, 
standing in the midst of slu-ubbery and stately elms, a 
little distance from the street, once the highway from Har- 
vard University to Waltham. At this mansion, and at 
"Winter Hill, Washington passed most of his time after 
taking command of the continental army, until the evacu- 
ation of Boston in the following spring. Its present 
owner is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, widely known 
in the world of literature as one of the most gifted men 
of the age. It is a spot worthy of the residence of an 
American bai'd so endowed, for the associations which 
hallow it are Unked with the noblest themes that ever 
awakened the inspiration of a child of song. 

This mansion stands upon the upper of two terraces, 
which are ascended each by five stone steps. At each 
front corner of the house is a lofty elm, mere saplings 
when Washington beheld them, but now stately and patri- 
archal in appearance. Other elms, with flowers and shrub- 
bery, beautify the grounds around it ; while within, icono- 
clastic innovation has not been allowed to enter with its 
mallet and trowel, to mar the work of the ancient builder, 
and to cover with the vulgar stucco of modern art the 
carved cornices and panelled wainscots that first enriched it. 

A few rods above the residence of Professor Lonsrfel- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



209 



low is the house in which the Brunswick general, the 
Baron Riedesel, and his family were quartered, during 
the stay of the captive army of Burgoyne in the vicinity 
of Boston. Upon a window pane on the north side of the 
house may be seen the undoubted autograph of the accom- 




plished Baroness Riedesel. It is an interesting memento, 
and preserved with great care. 

Near the westerly comer of the Common, upon Wash- 
ington Street, stands the Washington Elm, one of the 
ancient anakim of the primeval forest, older, probably, by 
half a century or more, than the welcome of Samoset to 
the white settlers, and is distinguished by the circumstance 
that beneath its broad shadow General Washington first 
18* 



210 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



drew his sword as commander-in-chief of the continental 
army, on tlie morning of July 3d, 1775. Not far from 
here was the ^pot where public town meetings were held, 
and also the tree under which the Indian council fires 
were lighted more than two hundred years ago. When 




the drum was used in Cambridge, instead of the bell, to 
summon the congregation to the place of worship, or 
to give warning of a savage enemy, the sound floated 
throughout those trailing limbs, that, could they but speak, 
would take a veteran's delight in telHng of the past. May 
no unkind hand mar the last tree of the native forest. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 211 

Though it may have stood century after century, like a 
sentinel on duty, defying the lightning and the storm, still 
let it stand, an interesting and sacred memorial of the 
past and the present, and continue to be associated, for 
many years to come, with the history of our country. 
And let the illustrious name wliich it bears, and which it 
derives from one of the most important events in the life 
of the father of his country, preserve it to remind the 
coming generations of his invaluable services and labors. 

Mount Auburn. — The cemetery of Mount Auburn, 
justly celebrated as the most interesting object of the kind 
in our country, is situated in Cambridge and Watertown, 
about four and a half miles from the city of Boston, and 
one and a quarter miles west of Harvard University. It 
includes upwards of one hundred acres of land, purchased 
at different times by the Massachusetts Horticultural Soci- 
ety, extending from the main road nearly to the banks of 
Charles River. A portion of the land next to the road, 
and now under cultivation, once constituted the experi- 
mental garden of the society. A long watercourse be- 
tween this tract and the interior woodland formed a nat- 
ural boundary, separating the two sections. The inner 
portion, which was set apart for the purposes of a ceme- 
tery, is covered, throughout most of its extent, with a 
vigorous growth of forest trees, many of them of large 
size, and comprising an imusual variety of species. This 



cn^iQjyNjT. m BUmn-j^ry^ _..,.. 




1. Road to Fresh Pond. 

2. Chapel. 

3. Spruce Avenue. 

4. Public Lot. 

5. Laurel Hill. 

6. Walnut Avenue. 

7. Mountain Avenue. 

8. Mount Auburn Tower. 

9. Dell Path. 

10. Pine Hill. 

11. Central Square. 

12. Cedar Hill. 

13. Harvard Hill. 

212 



14. Juniper Hill. 

15. Temple Hill. 

16. Rosemary Path. 

17. Jasmine Path. 

18. Chestnut Avenue. 

19. Poplar Avenue. 

20. Meadow Pond. 

21. Lime Avenue. 

22. Larch Avenue. 

23. Garden Pond. 

24. Forest Pond. 

25. Central Avenue. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 213 

tract is beautifully undulating in its surface, containing a 
number of bold eminences, steep acclivities, and deep, 
shadowy valleys. A remarkable natural ridge, with a 
level surface, runs through the ground from south-east to 
north-west, which was for many years a favorite walk with 
the students of Harvard. The principal eminence, called 
Mount Auburn, is one hundred and twenty-five feet above 
the level of Charles River, and commands from its sum- 
mit one of the finest prospects which can be obtained in 
the environs of Boston. On one side is the city, in full 
view, connected at its extremities with Charlestown and 
Roxbury. The serpentine course of Charles River, with 
the cultivated hills and fields rising beyond it, and the 
Blue Hills of Milton in the distance, occupies another 
portion of the landscape. On the north, at a very small 
distance, Fresh Pond appears, a handsome sheet of water, 
finely diversified by its woody and irregular shores. 
Country seats and cottages, in vai'ious directions, and 
especially those on the elevated land at Watertown, add 
much to the picturesque eifect of the scene. On the 
summit of this elevation a tower has been erected, (of 
sufiicient height to be seen above the surrounding trees,) 
to subserve the triple purpose of a landmark, to identify 
the spot, and for an observatory, commanding an uninter- 
rupted view of the surrounding landscape of cities, towns, 
hills, farms, rivers, Massachusetts Bay, with its many 



214 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

islands and shipping. The lantern or cupola of this 
tower is at least one hundred and eighty-five feet above 
Charles River. 

The front entrance gate from Cambridge road is a 
design from an Egyptian model, and is masterly chiselled 
in granite, at a cost of about ten thousand dollars ; and 
the cast iron picketed fence on that whole front Une was 
erected at a cost of about fifteen thousand dollars ; a 
splendid chapel was completed within its grounds in 1848, 
at a cost of about twenty-five thousand dollars. 

Strangers can receive on application to any trustee, or 
to the secretary, a permit to enter the cemetery with a 
carriage any day except Sundays and holidays ; but with- 
out a vehicle, visitors are admitted without charge. The 
following direct guide through the cemetery is taken fi-om 
" Dearborn's Guide through Mount Auburn," a book that 
may be procured at the entrance. 

" The front line of the cemetery is east to west ; and 
Central Avenue, fronting the gate, is from the north to 
the south. From the gate, advance in front up Central 
Avenue, and on the left, on an elevated plot, is the monu- 
ment to Spurzheim, and a little farther is the metal 
bronzed statue of Bowditch, in a sitting posture ; then 
turn to the west, into Chapel Avenue, and you see a 
beautiful monument erected to the memory of Dr. Sharp, 
and also a magnificent temple, appropriated to the sanctu- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 215 

ary services of the grave ; pass on into Pine Avenue, and 
there are the Shaw and Dorr monuments ; continue Pine 
Avenue to the north-west, which leads to Green Brier and 
Yarrow Paths, and there are the monuments to Fisher, 
Haughton, Fessenden, Channing, Curtis, Turner, Bangs, 
the sculjitured cliild of Binney, Doane, Gossler, Allen, 
with numerous other pillars and obelisks to meet the eye ; 
after this examination, turn into Heliotrope and Heath 
Paths, for sculpture of Gardner's child, monument of Wil- 
liam Appleton, and the splendid mausoleum of two fronts 
to Dr. Binney ; Armstrong, Shattuck's boy ; pass into Fir 
Avenue at the west, and view the Magoun monument of 
mother and daughter ; then turn to the south, where are 
the monuments to Torrey, Mrs. N. P. Willis, Bates, Lin- 
coln, Pickens, and many others ; pass through Fir Avenue 
to the south, crossing Spruce Avenue, curving to the 
south-east, and then turn to the right hand into Walnut 
Avenue, and at the right hand are Elder, Pilgrim, and 
Snowdrop Paths, on a north-west line, and view the ele- 
gantly carved temples of Cotting, Miles, Bush, Foss, Pen- 
niman, Shattuck, Farrar, Wolcott, Hartshorn, and others ; 
return to Walnut Avenue, and pass through it, curving to 
the south, and view the monuments to Hicks, Worcester, 
Watson, and others ; then turn to the left into Mountain 
Avenue, north-westerly, and ascend Mount Auburn's high- 
est mound, one hundred and twenty-five feet above the 



216 BOSTON AND VICINITT. 

River Charles, from whence Boston and the surrounding 
country may be seen ; then descend Mount Auburn on 
the south-east, through Hazel Path, curving round to the 
north, and view the Fuller monument ; then pass on to 
Harvard Hill at the north-east ; here the eye will greet 
the mausoleums to Andrews, Kirkland, Ashmun, Hoff- 
man, and officers of Harvard University, and also to some 
of the students ; descend into Rose Path, at the south- 
west, where are monuments of Scudder and Davis, encir- 
cling its base, to the eastward ; then turn to the right 
hand into Sweet Brier Path, and continue to its south-east 
termination, and there is a mausoleum to Coffin ; then 
turn to the left hand into Chestnut Avenue, and at its 
junction with Hawthorn Path is the Tremont Strangers' 
Tomb ; continue north-west thi'ough Hawthorn Path, 
which leads to Cedar Hill, where are the monuments to 
Hildreth, Appleton, and others; from thence south-west, 
round Cedar Hill, is Ivy Path, which curves to the north, 
and at the end of this branch, a little to the west, is Con- 
secration Dell, where are monuments to Stanton, Watts, 
Waterson, Leverett, Dana, &c. ; leave Consecration Dell 
at its north-west corner, and pass into Vine Path, crossing 
Moss Path by the monument to Stearns, on to Central 
Square, where are monuments to Hannah Adams, Mur- 
ray, and others ; at the north-west of Central Square is 
Poplar Avenue, curving to the east ; and there may be 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 217 

seen mementoes to Warren Colburn, Sturgis, Choate, 
Munson, Mrs. Ellis, and others ; then turn round to the 
left into the eastern line of Willow Avenue, curving round 
into its western line, and there are obelisks or mausoleums 
to McLellan, Wilhams, Buckingham, Randall, Chamber- 
lain, Thayer, Tuckerman, Mrs. Gannett, Lowell, Mason, 
Howard, and others ; leaving Willow Avenue at its south- 
west corner, turn to the right tlirough Poplar Avenue into 
Alder Path, to the north, and see a monument to Wet- 
more, Greenleaf, and others ; pass into Narcissus Path 
northerly, around Forest Pond, and view the monuments 
to Story, Webster, Oxnard, Rich, Durgin, Faxon, Wm- 
chester, and others ; at the north curve of Forest Pond is 
Catalpa Path, on an east Hne to Indian Ridge Path, where 
those to Brimmer, Bond, Seaver, Greenleaf, Patterson, 
Wadsworth, Francis, Fearing, West, To my Mary, Stack- 
pole, and others are erected ; then return to Catalpa Path 
west, to Linden Path, near to Beach Avenue, where are 
monuments to Tappan, Thaxter, Raymond, and others; 
pass through Beach Avenue to the south, w^ere are the 
monuments of Bigelow, Stone, Stevens, Coolidge, Putnam, 
&c. ; then turn round to the right hand into Central Ave- 
nue, where are the monuments of Hamden, Gibbs, Phelps, 
Peck, Burges, Abbe, Clary, and the sculptured watch dog 
of Perkins ; turn to the left hand into Cypress Avenue, 
where the Bible monument of Gray may be seen on 
19 



218 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

Hibiscus Path, and a little south is the Coggswell monu- 
ment ; then turn to the left, easterly, and near the centre 
of Central Avenue the monuments of Hewins, Tisdale, 
Buckminster, Cleveland, Lawrence, Herwig, and others ; 
continue through Cypress Avenue, curving to the south, 
and there is the public lot, with numerous shafts and me- 
mentoes to friends, with a singular horizontal slab to the 
memory of M. W. B., and a little north-west of the pub- 
lic lot, on Eglantine Path, is the sculptured figure of 
Christ blessing little children ; a little to the east of that 
is the Ford monument. Faith with the Cross, and the 
Fuller monument. Return through the south part of 
Cypress Avenue, where is a monument to Samuel Story, 
Jr., on Lupine Path ; then turn round to the left, into 
Cedar Avenue, leading, to the north, where are monuments 
to Gridley, Hayward, Benjamin, and others ; continue to 
the right hand, through part of Cypress Avenue, to Cen- 
tral Avenue, passing the statue of Bowditch, and view the 
monument to the officers lost in the exploring expedition, 
and others, after which a return to the gate on the north 
may be made direct." 

A short distance from the cemetery, in Watertown, 
is the United States Arsenal. It stands on the banks 
of the Charles River, a short distance below the village, 
contains a large amount of munitions of war, and covers 
forty acres of ground. 



-(,1 




i" \ 




CHAPTER XXV. 

BUNKER HILL. — MONUMENT. — STATUE OF GEN. WARREN. 
NAVY YARD. — STATE'S PRISON. — HARVARD MONU- 
MENT. 

Charlestown horse-cars can speedily set us down 
at the foot of Bunker Hill, where the pride of Britain 
was once humbled, and her veteran sons, in promiscuous 
heaps, bit the dust. On the summit of this eminence 
stands the renowned Monument, towering to the skies, 
silently saying. Here was the bloody conflict between the 
oppressor and the oppressed; there floated the ships of 
war that vainly thundered with the engines of desolation 
against the undaunted heroes who, with pickaxe and 
shovel, upheaved the mounds that were to protect them 
from the enemy. 

Ascending one of the long flights of granite steps to 
the gravel walk that leads to the monument, we approach 
the highest spot of this everlasting hill, of everlasting 
remembrance. Though once soaked with the blood of 
the slain, it is now a beautiful and interesting resort to 
strangers and travellers. Its pleasingly verdant surface 

220 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 221 

regularly descends every way to a green hedge that fringes 
its base, and outside of a broad walk on its four equal 
sides is a granite and iron fence, of elegant style. 

Bunker Hill Monument rises, lofty and grand, from 
the centre of the grounds included within the breastworks 
of the old redoubt on Breed's Hill. Its sides are precisely 
parallel with those of the redoubt. It is built of Quincy 
granite, and is two hundi'ed and twenty-one feet in height. 
The foundation is composed of six courses of stone, and 
extends twelve feet below the surface of the ground and 
base of the shaft. The four sides of the foundation ex- 
tend about fifty feet horizontally. There are in the whole 
pile ninety courses of stone, six of them below the surface 
of the ground, and eighty-four above. The foundation is 
laid in lime mortar; the other parts of the structure in 
lime mortar mixed with cinders, iron filings, and Spring- 
field hydraulic cement. The base of the obelisk is thirty 
feet square ; at the spring of the apex, fifteen feet. In- 
side of the shaft is a round, hollow cone, the outside diam- 
eter of which at the bottom is ten feet, and at the top, six 
feet. Around this inner shaft winds a spiral flight of 
stone steps, two hundred and ninety-five in number. In 
both the cone and shaft are numerous little apertures 
for the purposes of ventilation and light. The observa- 
tory or chamber at the top of the monument is seventeen 
feet in height and eleven feet in diameter. It has four 
19* 



222 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

windows, one on each side, which are provided with iron 
shutters. The cap piece of the apex is a single stone, 
three feet six inches in thickness, and four feet square at 
its base. It weighs two and a half tons. 

The monument was dedicated on the 17th of June, 
1843. The president of the United States (Mr. Tyler) 
and his whole cabinet were present, and Daniel Webster 
was the orator. 




'■gyiiKigtjit^srai^fe- 



Within the colossal obelisk is a beautiful model of Dr. 
Warren's Monument, which was removed to give place 
to the present one ; and a simple marble slab now only 



» BOSTON AND VICINITT. 223 

marks the spot where a patriot fell, as Hon. Edward 
Everett has beautifully expressed it, "with a numerous 
band of kindred spirits — the gray-haired veteran, the 
stripling in the flower of youth — who had stood side by 
side on that di-eadful day, and fell together, like the beauty 
of Israel in their high places." He was buried where he 
fell, but his ashes now repose in " Forest Hill Cemetery." 
In the top of the monument are two cannons, named 
respectively "Hancock" and "Adams," which formerly 
belonged to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- 
pany. The "Adams" was burst by them in fii-ing a 
salute. The following is the inscription upon the two 
guns : — 

SACRED TO LIBERTY. 

This is one of four cannons which constituted the whole train of 
field artillery possessed by the British colonies of North America at the 
commencement of the war, on the 19th of April, 1775. This cannon 
and its fellow, belonging to a number of citizens of Boston, were used 
in many engagements during the war. The other two, the property of 
the government of Massachusetts, were taken by the enemy. 

Though this monument was built to commemorate an 
important event and a bloody battle, it is also a most 
lofty observatory. The view from the top, for extent, 
variety, and beauty, is certainly one of the finest in the 
world, and worth a thousand miles of travel to see. Bos- 
ton, its harbor, and the beautiful country around, mottled 



224 BOSTON AND VICINITT. 

with villages, are spread out like a vast painting, and on 
every side the eye may rest upon localities of great his- 
torical interest — Cambridge, Roxbury, Chelsea, Quincy, 
Medford, Marblehead, Dorchester, and other places. In 
the far distance, on the north-west, rise the higher peaks 
of the White Mountains of New Hampshire ; and on the 
north-east the peninsula of Nahant and the more remote 
Cape Ann may be seen. Wonders which present science 
and enterprise are developing and forming are there' ex- 
hibited in profusion. At one glance from this lofty obser- 
vatory may be seen several railroads and many other 
avenues connecting the city with the country ; and ships 
from almost every region of the globe dot the waters of 
the harbor. Could a tenant of the old graveyard on 
Copp's Hill, who lived a hundred years ago, when the 
village upon Tri-mountain was fitting out its little armed 
flotillas against the French in Acadia, or sending forth its 
few vessels of trade along the neighboring coasts, or occa- 
sionally to cross the Atlantic, come forth and stand beside 
us a moment, what a new and wonderful world would be 
presented to his vision ! 

The statue of Major-Geneeal Joseph Warren, by 
Henry Dexter, in a building near the monument, was 
inaugurated on the fifth day of June, 1857. It is seven 
feet high, of the best Italian marble, and weighed in the 
block about seven tons. It is draped in the costume of 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



225 



the Revolutionary period, the model of the artist being a 
veritable citizen's suit of Governor Hancock, which has 
come down to our generation. " The attitude of the 
figure is highly dignified and imposing. The right hand 
rests upon a sword, the left being raised as in the act of 
giving emphasis to his utterance. The chest is thrown 
out, the head, which is uncovered, is elevated, and upon 
the broad brow, and the firm, manly features of the face, 
thought and soul are unmistakably stamped." 




Chaklestown Navy Yard. This naval depot is 
situated on the north side of Charles River, on a point 



226 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

of land east of the centre of the city of Charlestown, ex- 
tending along the harbor from the mouth of the Charles 
to the mouth of the Mystic River. This yard was pur- 
chased by the United States, under authority of an act of 
Congress, in the year 1800. The State of Massachusetts, 
by an act of the legislature of that year, gave its assent to 
the sale, under certain restrictions. The cost of the whole 
purchase, including commissions, was about forty thousand 
dollars. On the side next the town the yard is protected 
by a wall of stone masonry, sixteen feet high ; on the 
harbor side are several wharves and a dry dock ; except 
the approach to these, a sea wall is extended the whole 
harbor line. This dry dock was authorized by the nine- 
teenth Congress, commenced 10th July, 1827, and opened 
for the reception of vessels, 24th June, 1833. It is built 
of beautifully-hammered granite, in the most workmanhke 
and substantial manner ; is three hundred and forty-one 
feet long, eighty feet wide, and thirty feet deep, and cost 
about six hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. The 
first vessel docked after its completion was the frigate 
Constitution. A little farther off, on their own element, 
float the old copper bottoms with two or three decks, and 
with threatening broadsides and bow and stern chasers 
ready for the work of destruction, but now passive as so 
many swans. 

There are in this yard four large ship houses, various 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 227 

mechanic shops, storehouses, dwelling houses for the offi- 
cers, and marine barracks, besides an extensive ropewalk 
of granite. This structure, the finest in the country, is an 
object worthy the attention of strangers, and will give 
some idea of the vast amount of expenditure defrayed for 
public works at this superb naval station. The principal 
building contains in the basement the engine room and 
boilers ; the second story contains the spinning machinery ; 
and the " walks," being a quarter of a mile in length, 
occupy the ground floor. 

There are, too, in the yard large quantities of timber 
and naval stores, exceeding in value two millions of dol- 
lars. More or less ships of war are at all times lying 
here in ordinary. There is a sufficient depth of water for 
the largest ships of war to lie afloat, at all times, at the 
ends of the wharves. The yard contains within the wall 
about one hundred acres, and, independent of all buildings 
and works, the site would now readily command more 
than a million of dollars. 

The visitor to the navy yard will flnd many objects of 
interest to claim a shai'e of his attention ; and in every 
department of this great establishment there is a uniform 
neatness and order, which are always pleasing, and for 
which this station is inferior to none in the world. Many 
improvements have been made in it within a few years. 
Its general appearance is neat and fit ; and for all manu- 



228 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



facturing purposes connected with building and equipping 
ships of war, perhaps no other yard in the Union offers 
so great facilities. 

The Charlestown State Prison is in the form of 
a cross, having four wings united to a central octagonal 
building, one for the superintendent and his family, and 
three of them for inmates. The kitchen is in the centre 




octagon building, in the first story ; the supervisor's room 
is over the kitchen ; the chapel over the supervisor's room ; 
the hospital over the chapel ; and so good is the arrange 
ment, that all areas, apartments, windows, walls, galleries, 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 229 

staircases, fastenings, external walls, and external yard 
walls, except the space outside, at the end of the wings, 
are under supervision from the centre. If a prisoner 
breaks out, he only breaks in ; that is, if he escapes 
from his dormitory into the area, he has still another 
wall or grating to break, while at the same tune he is in 
sight. 

The buildings being of stone, the cell floors of stone or 
iron, the galleries and staircases of iron, and the doors 
and gratings of the same material, render the prison 
nearly fire-proof, while the whole building is ventilated in 
the most thorough manner, each small room, dormitory, or 
cell being provided with a ventilator, starting from the 
floor of the same, in the centre wall, and conducted, sepa- 
rate from every other, to the top of the block, where it is 
connected with a ventiduct. Both at the top and bottom 
of the room there is a sHde, or register, over orifices open- 
ing into this ventilator, which are capable of being opened 
or shut. 

School rooms, privilege rooms, chapels, private rooms 
and places, comfortably large single rooms, are provided, 
in which all kinds of good instruction can be given. The 
hospital is large, light, convenient, easily accessible, well 
warmed, and well ventilated. The separate rooms are so 
located and distributed, under supervision, from the centre 
building, that a gentle knock on the inner side of the door 
20 



230 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

of each separate lodging room can be heard by the person 
on duty in the central room for supervision and care, and 
relief be immediately procured, if seized by sickness. 

Large provision is made of floors and space for employ- 
ment, under cover, with good and sufiicient light, conven- 
ience, and supervision. In many old buildings there has 
not been employment, because there was no place suitable 
for it. This difficulty has received great consideration, 
and every effort has been made entirely to remove it, so 
that all the inmates of these buildings should be kept out 
of idleness, which is the mother of mischief. Labor is 
favorable to order, discipline, instruction, reformation, 
health, and self-support. But there can be but httle pro- 
ductive industry without a place for it. A visit to the 
work rooms, comprising the shoe making, whip making, cab- 
inet making, stone cutting, blacksmithing, uj)holstering, and 
other departments, generally pleases the visitor, and calls 
forth encomiums for the stillness, order, and cleanliness 
observed. 

The Monument erected to the memory of John Har- 
vard is situated on the top of the hill in the old graveyard 
near the state prison, in Charlestown. It was erected by 
the subscriptions of the graduates of Harvard University. 
It is constructed of granite, in a soKd shaft of fifteen feet 
elevation, and in the simplest style of ancient art. On 
the eastern face of the shaft the name of John Harvard 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



231 



is inscribed ; also on a marble tablet the following : " On 
the 26th of September, A. D. 1828, this stone was erected 
by the graduates of the university at Cambridge, in honor 
of its founder, who died at Charlestown on the 26th of 
September, 1638." On the western side of the shaft is an 
inscription in Latin, of the following purport : " That one 




who merits so much from our literary men should no 
longer be without a monument, however humble, the 
graduates of the University of Cambridge, New England, 
have erected this stone, nearly two hundred years after 
his death, in pious and perpetual remembrance of John 



232 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

Harvard." At tlie erection of this monument, the Hon. 
Edward Everett, who is considered one of the most ac- 
complished scholars educated at Harvard College, dehv- 
ered an appropriate and eloquent address. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

WOODLAWN CEMETERY. ROCK TOWER. — NETHER- 
WOOD POND. CHELSEA. 




WooDLAWN Cemetery is about 

four miles north of Boston, and two 

miles from Chelsea. Horse-cars for 

h (l Chelsea and Woodlawn leave ScoUay's 

Building, Boston, crossing the ferry 

at the end of Hanover Street. Chel- 



234 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 235 

sea Ferry is situated at the end of Hanover Street, and 
is one mile and three-eighths long. 

The best mode of reaching Woodlawn now is to cross 
over the Chelsea Bridge or Chelsea Ferry, and after con- 
tinuing in the main street for a quarter of a mile, to turn 
off to the left into Washington Avenue, which leads 
directly to the cemetery. 

By this route the visitor approaches the gate house by 
Woodlawn Avenue, which is a beautiful curve, rising reg- 
ularly for a distance of seventeen hundred feet, keeping a 
width of fifty feet, with sides well planted, and a jet or 
fountain at its lower extremity. 

The gate house is a fine Gothic building, fifty-six feet 
wide, with a high centre arch and two side arches. A 
lodge adjoins it, and the whole structure has been much 
admired for its dignity and grace. Near to it stands a 
rustic well house, embowered in roses and running vines. 

A few steps inside the gate bring the visitor to a small 
triangle, where the avenues diverge. Here stands the St. 
Benuard dog, the emblem of fidelity and affection, and by 
his side is the wonderful Ginko tree, the form and leaf of 
wliich demand notice. 

On the right, towards the hill, is now seen the Roch 
Tower, of which a view is presented on the following page. 
This tower is constructed of rude boulders, with a spiral 
walk ascending easily to the top. Its base is seventy- 



236 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



eight feet in diameter, and its altitude about thirty feet. 
From its summit are seen Lynn, Saugus, Nahant, the sea, 
bay, and other objects of interest. When covered with 
lichens, mosses, ferns, woodbines, and ivy, this ponderous 




pile will be exceedingly attractive. Eventually it i^ to 
serve as the base for a high observatory of iron. 

On the left of Entrance Avenue starts off the beautiful 
Netherwood Avenue, through which every one should 
pass, either entering or returning. Near its junction with 
Forest Glade Avenue, a few feet from tlie triangle, turn- 
ing to the right, are seen the receiving tombs, remarkable 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 237 

for their neatness and repose. Passing on towards the 
north, the long vista of Woodside Avenue will appear ; 
and passing through this elegant way, the approach to 
Chapel Hill is marked by a beautiful rustic arch, covered 
with wild grape vines, and surmounted by a cross bearing 
on one side the inscription, " I am the true vine," and on 
the other, " Abide in me." 

Li this vicinity are many beautiful lots and monuments ; 
and near the junction of Floral and Chapel Avenues 
another specimen of the Ginko tree is seen. 

Near the entrance to Chapel Hill is the lot of John M. 
Brown, and many others in good taste, which we have not 
room to specify. 

But one of the most delightful scenes any where to be 
found is Netherwood Pond, with its fine fountains and 
beautiful arbor, and the tall trees and gentle slopes which 
surround it. The views from Elm Hill, also, are fine. 

This cemetery will furnish some of the finest drives in 
the vicinity of Boston, and is destined to occupy a high 
place among the rural beauties of the country. 

Chelsea is one of the pleasantest of our suburban 
towns, the streets being broad, and bordered with shade 
trees, well lighted by gas, and lined with tasteful resi- 
dences. Among the public buildings in the city are the 
Naval Hospital, and the United-States Marine Hos- 
pital. The latter is a large and substantial brick build- 



238 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

ing at the left of the bridge, and with the dwelling-house 
and the grounds around, including nearly the whole hill, be- 
longs to the United-States Government. The City Hall 
is a fine large building of brick. The surface of Chelsea 
is quite undulating, rising in parts to a considerable eleva- 
tion. The most considerable of these eminences is Powder 
Horn Hill, about one mile from the ferry, from the summit 
of which magnificent views may be obtained of Boston, 
Charlestown, Bunker Hill, Medford, Lynn, Nahant, and 
Boston Harbor. Mount Bellingham is a lofty hill, com- 
manding an extensive prospect, and is already nearly cov- 
ered with elegant private residences. The attractions of 
the place are so great that numbers of gentlemen doing 
business in Boston apd elsewhere make their homes in 
Chelsea. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

CONCORD. — LEXINGTON. DORCHESTER HEIGHTS. — 

PERKINS INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 

Concord and Lexington may be easily reached from 
the Fitchburg depot, as Lexington is only eleven miles 
from Boston, and Concord six miles beyond. The vicinity 
of these liistorical places to Boston, and their accessibility 
by rail or country road, procure them large numbers of 
visitors during the pleasant months of the year. Boston 
and its environs abound in mementoes of the revolution- 
ary dead ; Bunker Hill rises, a sanctified spot forever ; 
the heights are not yet levelled which once bristled with 
Washington's cannon, and hastened the evacuation of the 
town by the British ; and here at Lexington and Concord 
is the soil that drank the very first blood of the martyrs 
of liberty — a soil on which the first armed resistance to 
aggression was attempted. 

Lexington is a very pretty place, and since the estab- 
lishment of the branch railroad connecting it with Boston, 
many of our citizens have availed themselves of the op- 

portupity of residing in the old historic town. Its area 
239 



240 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



comprises a great variety of scenery, and the soil is not 
ungrateful for the care of the husbandman. The town is 
built principally on a broad street, and in about the centre 
of it is the green on which the monument stands. It is 




built of granite, and has a marble tablet on the south iront 
of the pedestal, with the following inscription : — 

Sacred to the Liberty and the Rights of Mankind ! ! ! The Freedom 
and Independence of America — sealed and defended with the blood of 
her sons. This Monument is erected by the Inhabitants of Lexington, 
under the patronage and at the expense of the Commonwealth of Mas- 
sachusetts, to the memory of their Fellow-citizens, Ensign Kobert Mon- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 241 

roe, Messrs. Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, jun., 
Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John Brown, of Lexington, and 
Asahel Porter, of Wobuni, who fell on this Field, the first victims of 
the Sword of British Tyranny and Oppression, on the morning of the 
ever-memorable Nineteenth of April, An. Dom. 1775. The Die was 
cast ! ! ! The blood of these MartjTS in the Cause of God and their 
Country was the Cement of the Union of these States, then Colonies, 
and gave the Spring to the Spirit, Firmness, and Resolution of their 
Fellow-citizens. They rose as one man to revenge their Brethren's 
blood, and at the point of the Sword to assert and defend their native 
Rights. They nobly dared to be Free ! ! ! The contest was long, bloody, 
and affecting. Righteous Heaven approved the Solemn Appeal ; Vic- 
tory cro\vned their Arms, and the Peace, Liberty, and Independence of 
the United States of America was their glorious Reward. Built in the 
year 1799. 

Concord is a pleasant little village, and lies upon th-^i 
Concord River, one of the chief tributai'ies of the Merri- 
mac, near the junction of the Assabeth and Sudbury 
Rivers. Its Indian name was Musketaquid. On account 
of the peaceable manner in which it was obtained, by 
purchase, of the aborigines, in 1635, it was named Con- 
cord. At the north end of the broad street, or common, 
is the house of Colonel Daniel Shattuck, a part of which, 
built in 1774, was used as one of the depositories of stores 
when the British invasion took place. 

The Monument at Concord stands a short distance 
from the road leading into the town, upon land given for 
the purpose by Rev. Dr. Ripley. The river runs at the 
21 



242 



BOSTON AND VICINITT. 



foot of the mound on which it stands. It is built of 
Carlisle granite, and the following inscription is engraved 
on a marble table inserted in the eastern face of the ped- 
estal : — 




Here, 

On the 19th of April, 1775, 

was made the first forcible resistance to 

British Aggression. 

On the opposite bank stood the American 

tHlHtla, and on this spot the first of the enemy fell 

in the "War of the Retolution, 

which gave Independence to these United States. 

In gratitude to God, and in the love of Freedom, 

This Monument was erected, 

A. D. 1836. 



"BOSTON AND VICINITY, 243 

The view is from the green shaded laue which leads 
from the highway to the monument, looking westward. 
The two trees, standing one upon each side, without the 
iron railing, were saplmgs at the time of the battle ; be- 
tween them was the entrance to the bridge. The monu- 
ment is reared upon a mound of earth, a few yards fi-om 
the left bank of the river. A Uttle to the left, two rough, 
unmscribed stones from the field mark the graves of the 
two British soldiers who were killed and buried upon the 
spot. 

To reach South Boston from Boston we take the horse- 
cars, and are landed in a very short time at Dorchester 
Heights, which were occupied by Washington and his troops 
on the night of March 4th, 1776, and by ten o'clock two 
forts were formed, one towards the city, and the other 
towards Castle Island. Preparations were made for an 
attack by the British, and for defence by the Americans ; 
but the weather prevented the designs of the former, and 
they embarked for New York. Few visit Boston without 
a view of the spot that once bristled with bayonets, or the 
lines of the fortifications thrown up so speedily by the 
Continentals. 

Here, also, stands the Perhins Institute for the Blind. 
It is open to the public on the afternoon of the first Sat- 
urday in each month ; but in order to prevent a crowd, 
no persons are admitted without a ticket, which may be 



244 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



obtained gratuitously at No. 20 Bromfield Street. A lim- 
ited number of strangers, and persons particularly inter- 
ested, may be admitted any Saturday in the forenoon by 
previously applying as above for tickets. 

The pupils in the school are taught reading, writing, 
arithmetic, geography, history, natural philosophy, natural 




history, and physiology. They are carefully instructed in 
the theory and practice of vocal and instrumental music. 
Besides this they are taught some handicraft work by 
which they may earn their hvelihood. In this institution, 
for the first time in the world's history, successful attempts 



BOSTON AND VICINITY, 245 

were made to break through the double walls in which 
bUnd deaf mutes are immured, and to teach them a sys- 
tematic language for communion with their fellow-men. 
Laura Bridgman and Oliver Caswell are living refutations 
of the legal and popular maxim that those who are born 
both deaf and blind must be necessarily idiotic. They are 
pioneers in the way out into the light of knowledge, which 
may be followed by many others. 

In 1844 a supplementary institution grew out of the 
parent one, for the employment in handicraft work of such 
blind men and women as could not readily find employ- 
ment at home. This establishment has been highly suc- 
cessful. A spacious and convenient workshop has been 
built at South Boston, to which the work men and women 
repair every day, and are furnished with work, and paid 
all they can earn. 

The general course and history of the Perkins Institu- 
tion has been one of remarkable success. It has always 
been under the direction of one person. It has grown 
steadily in public favor, and is the means of extended use- 
fulness. In 1832 it was an experiment; it had but six 
pupils ; it was in debt, and was regarded as a visionary 
enterprise. In 1833 it was taken under the patronage of 
the state ; it was patronized by the wealthy, and enabled 
to obtain a permanent local habitation and a name. 

The terms of admission are as follows : the children of 
21* 



246 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

citizens of Massachusetts not absolutely wealthy, free; 
others at the rate of one hundred and sixty dollars a year, 
which covers all expenses except for clothing. Applicants 
must be under sixteen years of age. Adults are not 
received into the institution proper, but they can board in 
the neighborhood, and be taught trades in the workshop 
gratuitously. After six months they are put upon wages. 
This department is a self-supporting one, but its success 
depends upon the sale of goods at the depot, No. 20 Brom- 
field Street. Here may be found the work of the blind 
— all warranted, and put at the lowest market prices ; 
nothing being asked or expected in the way of charity. 
The institution is not rich, except in the confidence of the 
public and the patronage of the legislature 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

NAHANT. 








i0tii-^£^/^^'*''*^ 



Stranger, if you would visit one of the most pleasant 
and deKglitfi|l watering places in the world, seat yourself 
in the cars, be landed at Lynn, take passage in one of the 
stages that leave almost hourly, and when deposited in 
Nahant — take your Guide's word for it — you will bless 
your stars, and thank him. Here, isolated from the noise, 

249 



250 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

and heat, and bustle of the city, you may wander by the 
hour on the rocks, and watch the liquid chisel of the sea 
at its unwearied task upon the blue and slaty substance 
of the crags. Atom by atom they yield to the muscular 
swing of the billows, worn and polished by their frothy 
edges, — the toughest creation conquered by the softest, 
and the noise of this constant sculpture is the music of 
the world. 

The rocks are torn into such varieties of form, and the 
beaches are so hard and smooth, that all the beauty of 
wave motion and the whole gamut of ocean eloquence are 
offered here to the eye and ear. The soft swash of the 
Ughter waves upon the sloping sand; the bellow of the 
breakers that are driven uito the rifts and caverns where 
the sunhght never strays; the gurgle of the waters as 
they run back from out the cold chambers of darkness ; 
the dash of an in-egular roller upon the rough front of 
the battlements ; the full, majestic bass of a billow that 
charges the rocks in plumed order ; the heavy thump of 
the waves upon the foundation of the rocks, waking a 
muffled moan, as from the earth's weary heart ; and all 
the splendors which the ocean offers to the eye — the 
scattering of creamy foam over the pebbly beach, and the 
dying of its whiteness into the gloomy bronze of the dark 
seaweed ; the sparkle of the frolicking froth in the sun ; 
the curl of the solemn rollers, and the bewitcliing green 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 251 

of their crests, as they bend just before they tumble in 
music ; all the loveliness and majesty of the ocean are 
disf^layed around the jagged and savage-browed cliffs of 
Nahant. 

This narrow promontory, which runs out from Lynn 
Beach, is crowned with charming gardens, cottages, and 
villas, and rests like an emerald in its sparkhng and fretted 
framework of brilliants. While the rocks present every 
variety of color, the cliffs are pierced by fissures, caverns, 
and grottos so numerous that the visitor stands in awe ; 
and the shell-crowned beaches of shining, silvery sand are 
so smooth and hard that they take no impress of the 
steed's hoof or the rolling wheel ; and as the mind does 
not seem capable of containing all, follow the Guide, and 
view each object separately. 

Turnmg to the left of Nahant Beach, over which we 
have just come, a vast fissure in the cliff, forty feet in 
depth, is seen, bearing the name of John's Peril. At 
the distance of three fourths of a mile from where we 



_<&istrf -jjfS; 



252 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



stand, Egg Rock rises abruptly from the sea to the height 
of eighty-six feet. Its shape is oval, and on its summit 
the gulls deposit their eggs in abundance, whence it takes 
its name.* Passing the Iron Mine, (a huge black ledge,) 
we reach The Spoxiting Horn. Here the water, after 
being driven through a rocky tunnel one hundred feet in 
length into a deep cavern, is spouted forth in wild sheets 
of foam and spray, while the Atlantic's billows seem to 
jar the solid rocks with thundering sound, and shake the 
very crags that dare to stay their onward progress. Pass- 
ing Saunders's Ledge, we reach 




Castle Rock. The l)attlements, buttresses, turrets, 
md embrasures of an ancient castle are sc faithfully rep- 



A light house has been erected on this rock. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



253 



resented by tliis immense pile of rocks, that one almost 
waits for the warden's challenge or the trumpet's blast 
and expects to see the square openings (so like doors and 
wmdows) peopled with armed men. 

In Caldkon Cliff the water boils with tremendous 
force and fury during great storms ; and in Roaring- 
Cavern the sound is distinctly heard. Crossing Natu- 
ral Bridge, we may see the varying tides and jagged 
rocks full twenty feet below us, and we reach 




Pulpit Rock, a huge mass of stone nearly twenty feet 
square, and rising full thirty feet above the yeasty billows. 
The upper portion of the rock bears a striking resem- 
blance to a pile of books, with a seat opening in their 
22 



254 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



midst; but the steepness of the crag renders the ascent 
very difficult, as the road to knowledge always has been 
found to be. 



— ti -— 




Swallows' Cave is a passage eight feet high, ten 
wide, and seventy-two feet in length, opening into the sea. 
Formerly the swallows inhabited this cave in great num- 
bers, and built their nests in the irregularities of the rocks 
above ; but the multitude of visitors has frightened them 
away. Continuing on our way, we reach 



BOSTON AND VICINITT. 



255 




Irene's Grotto, a tall arch, grotesque and beautiful, 
leading to a large room in the rock, and one of the great- 
est curiosities on Nahant. Near by is the Steamboat 
Wharf. The cut at the head of this chapter (page 
249) is a representation of the hotel formerly standing 
at East Point, Nahant, which was probably the largest 
hotel in America, the carpeted floors covering an area of 
nearly four acres ; nine miles of wire being required to 
connect the bells with the annunciator ; and the whole of 
the immense establishment lighted with gas manufactured 
on the premises. It was built in the year 1824, and was 
purchased in the year 1853 of the then proprietor, Phin- 
ehas Drew, by four gentlemen of Lynn, and by them re- 
modelled and greatly enlarged, and for several years was 



256 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

occupied by the well-known landlord, Paran Stevens, du- 
ring which time Nahant was one of the most popular 
watering-places in the United States. The hotel was 
entirely destroyed by fire in September, 1861, since which 
time no hotel has been erected on its site. A hotel, 
sinaller but commodious, kept by Albert Whitney, has 
been the resort of travellers for some thirty years ; and a 
number of boarding-houses afford accommodation to the 
many visitors who annually spend a portion of the sum- 
mer at this pleasant resort. The peninsula is dotted over 
with the cottages of Boston merchants, who early sought 
this charming spot, where they find coolness and quiet 
during the warm season. The proximity of Nahant to 
Boston, and the excellent facilities which there usually 
are for getting there, render it one of the most desirable 
places for a summer residence to be found upon the whole 
New-England coast. 

We cannot better finish our description of this match- 
less watering place than by the following, from the pen of 
the late Alonzo Lewis, of Lynn, a gentleman well known 
to the literary world. 

" The temperature of Nahant, being moderated by sea 
breezes, so as to be cooler in summer and milder in winter 
than the main land, is regarded as being highly conducive 
to health. It is delightful in summer to ramble round 
this romantic i>t!:iinsula. and to examine at leisure its in- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 257 

teresting curiosities — to hear the waves rippling the col- 
ored pebbles of the beaches, and see them gliding over 
the projecting ledges in fanciful cascades — to behold the 
plovers and sandpipers running along the beaches, the 
seal slumbering upon the outer rocks, the white gulls soar- 
ing overhead, the porpoises pursuing their rude gambols 
along the shore, and the curlew, the loon, the black duck, 
and the coot, the brant, with his dappled neck, and the 
oldwife, with her strange, wild, vocal melody, swimming 
gracefully in the coves, and rising and sinking with the 
swell of the tide. The moonlight evenings here are ex- 
ceedingly lovely ; and the phosphoric radiance of the bil- 
lows, on favorable nights, (making the waters look like a 
sea of fire,) exhibits a scene of wonderful beauty. 

" But, however delightful Nahant may appear in sum- 
mer, it is surpassed by the grandeur and sublimity of a 
winter storm. \Vlien the strong east wind has swept over 
tlie Atlantic for several days, and the billows, wrought up 
to fury, are foaming along like living mountains — break- 
ing upon the precipitous cliffs — dashing into the rough 
goi'ges — thundering in the subterranean caverns of rocks, 
and throwing the white foam and spray, like vast columns 
of smoke, hundreds of feet in the air, above the tallest 
clifts — an appearance is presented which the wildest 
imagination cannot surpass. Then the ocean — checked 
in its headlong career by a simple bar of sand — as if 
22* 



258 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

mad with its detention, roars like protracted thunder ; and 
the wild sea birds, borne along by the furious waters, are 
dashed to death against the cliffs. Standing at such an 
hour upon the rocks, I have seen the waves bend bars of 
iron an inch in diameter double, float rocks of granite six- 




teen feet in length, as if they were timbers of wood, and 
the wind, seizing the white gull in its irresistible embrace, 
bear her, shrieking, many miles into Lynn woods. In 
Bummer a day at Nahant is delightful ; and a storm in 
winter is glorious, but terrible." 

Maolis. — Mr. Tudor, known as the ice-king, from 
his enterprise in supplying many portions of the globe 
with ice from Massachusetts, set apart from his extensive 
possessions this beautiful spot for parties of pleasure, who 
resort thither, in summer, in large numbers, from the neigh- 
boring towns and cities. He selected its fanciful name, 



BOSTON AND VICINITT. 259 

Siloam reversed, from the health-giving property of its 
sea-baths, to be enjoyed in the grottos and recesses of its 
shores. Money has been profusely expended in mason, 
shell, and pebble work, statuary, fountains, swings, and 
other contrivances for amusement ; and the crowd that 
resort there on pleasant days proves it to have been well 
laid out. The grounds comprise about twenty acres, and 
border several hundred feet upon the sea. They com- 
mand a superb view of Egg Rock, Little Nahant, Lynn, 
Swampscott, and Phillips' Beach ; and of a summer noon- 
day, as the eye ranges over the gleaming waters to the 
graceful headlands peerin'g in the distance, it takes in a 
scene, which, once enjoyed, will ever be remembered with 
delight. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

BOSTON HARBOR. ISLANDS. FARM SCHOOL. ALMS- 
HOUSE. FORT INDEPENDENCE. FORT WINTHROP. 




The readiest way of regaining the city is to take 
passage on board a steamer lying at the wharf. The 
trip occupies only about forty minutes, and is one of 

260 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 261 

the most delightful that can be imagined. Shooting off 
from the rocky peninsula, and leaving behind Nahant, 
with its enchanting associations, we have time, as the little 
steamer goes puffing along, to see the Islands in Boston 
Harbor ; and if there are natural beauties, romantic ele- 
vations, or silent and wild retreats in the vicinity of Bos- 
ton, they are in the hai-bor. These islands are gradually 
wearing away ; and where large herds of cattle once fed, 
the ocean now rolls its angry billows, and lashes with an 
overwhelming surge the last remains of earth. 

We can see the Lower Light, or, farther off, the smoke 
rising from HxdL Nearer by, George's Island, with com- 
manding Fort Warren ujion it, ready to annihilate any 
intruder ; (this island is the key to the harbor, command- 
ing the open sea, and rising in some places nearly fifty 
feet above high water mark ;) and the rocks of Nix^s Mate 
may be seen, where tradition says a captain was murdered 
by his mate, and buried. The Lighthouse, and the splen- 
did building formerly occupied as a hotel, in the form of 
a Greek cross, and which is often visited by parties who 
saU down the harbor, show plainly on Long Island. 
In the rear is Rainsford Island and the Quarantine 
Ground. Not far off are Spectacle and ThompsorCs 
Islands. On the latter is situated the Farm School. 
The objects of the institution are, to rescue from the ills 



262 BOSTON AKD VICINITY. 

and the temptations of poverty and neglect those who 
have been left without a parent's care ; to reclaim from 
moral exposure those who are treading the paths of dan- 
ger; and to offer to those whose only training would 
otherwise have been in the walks of vice, if not of crime, 
the greatest blessing which New England can bestow upon 
her most favored sons. The occupations and employments 
of the boys vary with the season. In spring, summer, 
and autumn, the larger boys work upon the garden and 
farm. The younger boys have small gardens of their own, 
which afford them recreation when released from school. 
In the winter season most of them attend school, where 
they are instructed in the learning usually taught in our 
common schools, and some of them are employed in 
making and mending clothes and shoes for the institution. 
The winter evemngs are occupied with the study of geog- 
raphy and the use of globes, botany and practical agri- 
culture, lecturing on different subjects, singing, and reading. 
Every boy in the institution is required to be present 
during the evening exercises, if he is able. At the age 
of twenty-one each boy is entitled to a suit of clothes, and 
if apprenticed to a farmer, to one hundred dollars in money 
in addition. The boys are all comfortably clad with wool- 
len clothes, shoes, stockings, and caps, and appear to be 
as happy in their present situation as boys generally are 
under the paternal roof. They are well supplied with 



BOSTON AND VICINTTT. 263 

books, and required to keep them in order, their library 
containing about four hundred volumes of well-selected 
books. Opportunities are occasionally offered to the 
friends of boys at the institution of visiting them on the 
island in the summer months. 

On the long promontory in the rear is Squantum, the 
very name of which is sufficient to conjure up ideas of 
chowders, fishing parties, «fec. 

We shoot past Deer Island, on which stands the Alms- 
house. The form of this structure is that of a " Latin 
cross," having its four wings radiating at right angles from 
a " central building." The central building is four stories 
high ; the lower story (on a uniform level with the cellars 
or work rooms of the north, east, and west wings) contains 
the bathing rooms, cleansing rooms, furnace, and fuel 
rooms ; the two next stories contain the general guard 
room, to be used also as a work room ; the next story is 
the chapel ; and the upper story is the hospital. The 
south wing is four stories high ; the lower one contains the 
family kitchens and entry of the superintendent's family ; 
the second is appropriated for the family parlors of the 
superintendent, and a room for the use of the directors, 
together with the entrances and staircases, and the opening 
or carriage way for receiving the paupers. The staircases 
communicating with the guard room, and with the cleans- 
ing rooms in the lower story of the central building, are 



264 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

also located in this story. The two remaining stories 
are used for the family sleeping rooms, superintendent's 
office, officers' rooms, and bathing rooms, together with the 
entries, passages, closets, and staircases. Each of the 
north, east, and west wings is three stories high, with base- 
ments and attics over the whole surface of each wing. 
The basements are for work rooms. The remaining 
stories, including the attics, contain the wards, hospitals, 
and day rooms for the inmates, together with the sleeping 
and inspection rooms for the nurses and attendants. 
There is a chapel, with a gallery, occupying seventy-five 
by seventy -five feet, on the third floor of the central build- 
ing, equal in height to two stories. The floor of the 
chapel is on a level with the attic floors of the wings. It 
is well lighted, in a central position, of convenient access 
from all parts of the estabhshment, and is commodious 
enough for those who are able to attend religious wor- 
ship, out of even a larger population than twelve hundred. 
The paupers, as they arrive, are received at a central 
point, under the eye of the superintendent, in his office, as 
they approach ; thoroughly cleaned, if necessary, in the 
basement central apartments for cleansing; and distrib- 
uted, when prepared for distribution, to those parts of the 
building assigned to the classes to which they belong. 

As the channel narrows, we pass between Castle and 
Winthrop Islands. On the former stands Fort Inde- 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 265 

PENDENCE. The following is the quaint description of 
the Castle as it was first built : " The Castle is built on the 
North-East of the Island, upon a rising hill, very advan- 
tageous to make many shots at such ships as shall offer to 
enter the Harbor, without their good leave and liking; 
the Commander of it is one Captain Davenport, a man 
approved for his faithfulness, courage, and skill, the Mas- 
ter Canoneer is an active Ingineer ; also this Castle hath 
cost about four thousand pounds, yet are not this poor pil- 
grim people weary of maintaining it in good repair ; it is 
of very good use to awe any insolent persons, that putting 
confidence in their ships and sails, shall oifer any injury to 
the people, or contemn their Government ; and they have 
certain signals of alarums, which suddenly spread through 
the whole country." By these alarums is meant the can- 
non and beacon light upon the great natural pinnacle of 
Beacon Hill. 

It was afterwards rebuilt with pine trees and earth. In 
a short time this also became useless, and a small castle 
was built, with brick walls, and had three rooms in it ; a 
dwelling room, a lodging room over it, and a gun room» 
over that. The erection of this castle gave rise to the 
present name of the island. At one time there was like- 
wise a strong building erected on the island for the recep- 
tion of convicts whose crimes deserved the gallows, but 
by the lenity of the government had their punishment 
23 



266 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

changed. Here abode the celebrated Stephen Burroughs. 
This island belongs to the United States, by which Fort 
Independence has been erected on the castle ruins. 




On the west side of the wall a tombstone stands, beneath 
which sleeps the good old Edward Pursley, whose spirit, 




BOSTON AND VICINITY. 267 

we trust, has spent nearly a century in heaven. There is 
likewise an ancient slab, small, of red sandstone, bearing 
the name of Nathaniel Ely, but no date, and, stranger to 
relate, no epitaph ! But turning the western flank of a 
battery that fronts on the channel towards the city, we be- 
hold a diiferent monument, each of whose four faces bears 
an inscription. Here, the name — an officer of U. S. 
Light Artillery ; there, that the stone is erected by the 
officers of his regiment; on the third side, that he fell 
near the spot ; and on the fourth, the distich from Collins's 
beautiful ode : — 

" Here Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
To deck the turf that wraps his clay." 

Here we may observe the wonderful beauty of the har- 
bor, with its cities on land, and its steeple-pointed ship- 
ping, in the midst of which sit so lovely the flocks of 
graceful and motionless islands. 

Governor's Island lies about one mile north of Castle 
Island, and was first called Conant's Island. It was de- 
mised to Governor Winthrop in 1632, and for many years 
after was called the Governor's Garden. Here the United 
States government is building a fortress called Fort Win- 
throp. Its situation is very commanding, and in some 
respects superior to Castle Island. 

It is a pleasing occupation, as we glide along, to watch 



268 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



the outward-bound vessels, their canvas first becoming 
dim as they tend towards the distant horizon, and finally 
blotted out in the misty obscurity of the sea distance. 
The imagination loves to follow them in their flight, and 
picture their adventures on that vast watery expanse 
whose daily history is full of marvel, and whose dark 
depths shroud mysteries never to be unfolded to mortal 
ken. 

Few visitors, after landing at Liverpool Wharf, (once, 
under the title of " Griffin's Wharf," so celebrated for the 
waste of English tea that occurred there,) do not cherish 
the most pleasing reminiscences of their visit to Nahant 
and sail up Boston Harbor. 




CHAPTER XXX. 

BLACKSTONE SQUAKE. FRANKLIN SQUARE. FOREST 

HILLS CEMETERY. 

Forest Hills Cemetery is situated between Norfolk 
and Bristol Turnpike, Walk Hill, Canterbury, and Scar- 
borough Streets, in Roxbury. It may be reached from 
the Providence Depot, or by horse cars ; but it will be 
found more pleasing to go by horse cars, and return in 
the steam cars. As the car rolls along, we can catch a 
hasty view of Williams Market, of the high stone walls 
of the Cemetery, and of Blackstone, Franklin, and Worces- 
ter Squares, and Chester Park. 

The former (Blackstone Square) on the west side of 
Washington Street, beyond No. 773, containing one hun- 
dred and five thousand feet of land, and now laid out 
with young trees, is an ornament to this portion of 
the city. The fence is constructed of iron, and has a 
length of thirteen hundred feet, the cost of which was five 
thousand dollars. Of tliis sum, two thousand dollars were 
contributed by the property holders or residents around 

the square. 

23 * 269 



270 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 



Franklin Square is opposite Blackstone Square, and 
contains the same quantity of ground, and is improved in 
the same style as the former. A Cochituate fountain is 
provided in the centre of each square, at a cost of seven 




hundred and fifty dollars each, exclusive of the pipe and 
vase. 

A hasty glance is all we catch of fine dwellings and 
beautiful gardens, as we pass rapidly through Roxbury. 
But at length we arrive at the Cemetery, the description 
of which (by permission of Mr. Crafts) we are allowed to 
borrow from " The Guide to Forest Hills," of which he is 
the author. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 271 

The approaches to Forest Hills from all sides are 
through pleasant and quiet roads, by well-cultivated lands, 
deUghtful rural residences, or by the wilder beauties of 
unadorned nature. In the season of verdure and flowers, 
few more agreeable drives can be found in the vicinity of 
Boston than thi'ough the streets and avenues that lead to 
the cemetery. There are beautiful views in every direc- 
tion from the elevated grounds, and in the valleys or the 
woods many a nook may be observed where cottages may 
nestle, Avhile all around are springing up elegant villas, 
and pleasant grounds mark the progress of taste and 
refinement. But from no direction is the cemetery notice- 
able at any distance, except perhaps on the south-eastern 
side. It is shut out from the world, a calm retreat, though 
near the rapid tide of life. 

The mam entrance to the cemetery is reached from the 
highway, Scarborough Street, by a broad avenue, which 
curves up a gentle ascent, till it reaches the gateway. As 
it approaches the gateway, this avenue is divided by a 
group of trees, but unites again directly in front of the 
entrance. The gateway at this entrance is of somewhat 
imposing dimensions, the whole structure having a front 
of one hundred and sixty feet. The carriage way is 
through an Egyptian portico, copied from an ancient por- 
tico at Garsery, on the Upper Nile. On each side, a lit- 
tle removed, are smaller gates for pedestrians, and near 




*^£3*«re.5*^. f^*^ 



BOSTON AND VICINITY, 273 

these are small lodges corresponding with the gateway in 
style. 

Upon the outer architrave of the gateway are inscribed, 
in golden letters, the words, — 

" THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 
I WILL FEAR NO EVIL." 

On the interior architrave, in the same kind of letters, are 
the words, — 

"I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE." 

Consecrated June 28, 1848. 

The gateway and lodges are built of wood, painted and 
sanded in imitation of Jersey sandstone. 

There are other entrances on the southern and eastern 
sides of the cemetery. On the southern side the cemetery 
grounds do not extend to any public street, but an avenue 
thirty-three feet wide is laid out from Walk Hill Street to 
the boundary of the cemetery, where there is an entrance 
through a gate supported by Egyptian piers. This avenue 
is shaded on each side by thickly-growing evergreens, and 
from it the visitor enters at once upon one of the most 
beautiful parts of the cemetery. 

From the main entrance three avenues diverge towards 
different parts of the cemetery, that on the right, however, 
being designed to open into lands which have not yet been 



274 



BOSTON AND VICINIXr. 



added to the grounds. Chestnut Avenue, which leads to 
the left, passes over a gentle elevation, and thence through 
the vale of Lake Dell towards Consecration Hill. On the 
right hand of this avenue, before reaching Lake DeU, 




rises a rocky eminence, called Snowjlake Cliff, from a 
beautiful wild plant which grows at its base. From the 
summit of this rock there is a beautiful view of the village 



BOSTON AND VICINITr. 275 

of Jamaica Plain, and of the wooded hills of Brookline 
and the country beyond. 

Lake Dell is a natural pool, thickly overshadowed by 
trees which gi'ow from its banks. On either side an ave- 
nue is laid out, and from these the wooded hills rise, en- 
closing a most quiet and beautiful dell, suggesting the 
name of the pond. 

From the eastern end of Lake Dell, Magnolia Avenue 
leads to the summit of Consecration Hill, which rises in 
an angle of the cemetery, and touches its northern and 
eastern boundaries. As its name indicates, the consecra- 
tion services were performed here, at the foot of its south- 
ern slope, while the audience which was gathered there on 
that day were ranged upon the hill side. Consecration 
Hill is one of the highest of the Forest Hills, and from 
its summit is a beautiful prospect. Through the vistas of 
the trees there are charming views of the Blue Hills and 
the intervening valley, and in other directions of hills and 
plains, of farm houses, villas, and cottages, with here and 
there a church spire rising above the distant woods. 

Following Rock Maple Avenue, the visitor is led fromi 
the eastern end of Lake Dell around the base of Mount 
Warren, which rises on the right, for the most part regu- 
larly but steeply, with here and there large boulders pro- 
truding above the surface. The side of Mount Warren is 
clothed with a thick growth of wood, and this avenue, in 



276 



BOSTON" AND VICINITY. 



the afternoon especially, lies in deep shadow under the 
foliage. Curving around the foot of the hill, it is a pleas- 
ant approach to some of the more attractive spots in the 




cemetery, and leads directly to the pleasant dell at the foot 
of Mount Dearborn and Fountain Hill. In this dell there 
is a little nook, which seems almost a grotto under the 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 277 

overhanging foliage of trees and shrubs that grow on tlie 
precipitous sides of Fountain Hill. The deep shadows 
seem to spread a refreshing coohiess around, and invite 
one to rest on the gax'den seats, which are disposed on one 
side, while on the other is a rustic fountain — a natural 
spring, over which is erected a covering of rough stones. 
The stones are clothed with hchens, and in the interstices 
are planted moss, brakes, and other wild plants, the whole 
forming a pretty rustic monument. On the upper stone is 
fixed a bronze plate bearing the foUowmg words : — 

" WHOSOEVER DRINKETH OF THIS WATER WILL THIRST AGAIN : BUT 

THE WATER THAT I SHALL GIVE WILL BE IN HIM A WELL OF 

WATER SPRINGING UP INTO EVERLASTING LIFE." 

From this vicinity two avenues lead up, through natural 
depressions, to the higher plain of the cemetery, one on 
each side of Mount Dearborn. The eastern side of this 
hill is very rough and precipitous, huge boulders being 
piled one above another, in fantastic shapes, clothed with 
shrubbery which groAvs in the fissures of the stones, and 
shaded by trees which have found root beneath them. 

From the Fountain Dell a steep path leads up the 
southern side of Mount Dearborn, and then up its more 
gentle western slope to the top. As seen from the plain 
on the west of the hill, it appears to be only a slight ele- 
vation, but it rises to a considerable height above the low 
24 



278 



BOSTON AND VICINITT. 



land on the opposite side. On the summit is the monu- 
ment erected by his friends and fellow-citizens as a tribute 
to the memory of General Dearborn. The prospect from 




this hill is not very extensive, but gUmpses may be had of 
some of the most finished and beautiful portions of the 
cemetery. 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 279 

From the dell which divides Mount Dearborn from 
Mount Warren an avenue leads, by a somewhat steep 
ascent, to the top of the latter, which is, in fact, rather 
table land than a hill. The prospect from Mount Warren 
is more hmited than that from some of the other hills, 
owing to the growth of the trees which skirt its sides. 
But here and there, through the trees, a distant picture 
of rural scenery may be seen, or a nearer one of some 
beautiful spot in the cemetery, with the marble monuments 
gleaming among the fohage and flowers. 

The burial lot of the Warren family is on the summit 
of Mount Warren. The ashes of General Warren, with 
others of the family, have recently been taken from their 
original resting place, deposited in urns, and reinterred in 
this lot ; so that these grounds are in fact the shrine which 
contams his sacred remains. 

The EUot Hills, which take their name from the apostle 
Eliot, are four eminences in the south-western part of the 
cemetery ; or, more correctly, there is but one hill, having 
several small ridges or undulations near its summit. The 
summit of this hill is of solid rock. Here it is proposed 
to erect a monument to commemorate the virtues and 
labors of the devoted Eliot, who for neai-ly sixty years 
was the pastor of the First Church in Roxbury, who, 
with so much of self-sacrifice and untiring energy, sought 



280 BOSTON AND VICINITY. 

to civilize and Christianize the savage, and who so truly 
earned the noble title of " Apostle to the Indians." 

On the south of Mount Dearborn is another elevation 
of about the same height, which is called Fountain Hill, 
from the spring at its base, before alluded to. On the 
side of the Fountain Dell this hill is very precipitous, and 
thickly covered with trees and underwood. The eastern 
and south-eastern slopes are quite steep, but much less 
rugged and precipitous. Down its sides paths lead to 
Fountain Dell and towards Lake Hibiscus, which can be 
seen gleaming through the fohage. Towards the south a 
path of more gentle descent, overlooking the lake, leads 
down to the grounds in the vicinity of the Field of Mach- 
pelah. For a portion of the distance, the outer side of 
this path is suffported by a rough wall, through which 
arbor vitae and other trees have been made to grow, the 
roots being planted below the wall. These trees, when 
they shall attain a larger growth, will add much to the 
picturesque beauty of this hill side. 

Into this portion of the cemetery the southern entrance 
opens, and in the vicinity of the gateway the pine grove 
retains more of its original solemn beauty. Down the 
avenue which leads from this gateway to Walk Hill Street, 
with its thick evergreens, is a view through the long vista 
which is sure to attract the eye. 

Cypress Hill, which is the first elevation on the open 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 281 

portion of tlie cemetery, immediately overlooks the quiet 
plain of " Canterbury," and a portion of the neighboring 
cemetery of Mount Hope, On the opposite side there 
are views of different portions of the cemetery grounds. 
There are but few trees on this hill, except those recently 
planted ; but there is a quiet charm about the spot, even 
in its openness and want of shade, so favorable for the 
distant prospect, that makes it one of the attractive local- 
ities of the cemetery. East of Cypress Hill extend the 
open grounds, jjresenting an undulating surface — gentle 
swells of land, which gradually descend to the fertile 
plain near the eastern boundary. 

Lake Hibiscus, already an attractive feature, promises 
to be one of the chief beauties of Forest Hills. It lies a 
short distance east of Fountain Hill, and is approached by 
avenues from different parts of the cemetery. In it two 
islands have been formed, one of which contains a copious 
and never-failing spring of crystal water, which gushes up 
through the pebbly bottom of a Uttle basin. About the 
island birches are planted, and willows are trained across 
the rustic bridge by which it is reached. This island is a 
favorite resort for visitors, who gather here to watch the 
graceful swans and the snowy ducks, as they sail about 
their domain. The beautiful swans, especially, ai-e always 
objects of interest, and are quite ready to meet their vis- 
itors, and receive food from their hands. From them the 
24* 



282 



BOSTON AND VICmiTT. 



Other island, which is larger than that containing the spring, 
takes its name, and to their use it is to be appropriated. 

The numerous boulders which are scattei'ed over some 
parts of the cemetery have not only added to the pictu- 




resque character of its scenery, but have afforded an op- 
portunity for rustic ornament in laying out the grounds 



BOSTON AND VICINITY. 283 

Some of the most striking and picturesque rocks have 
been suffered to remain in their natural state, the labor 
of art going only so far as more clearly to develop their 
beauty, and to adorn the grounds around. One of the 
most picturesque groups of these rocks is on the lot of 
General William H. Sumner, called Sumner Hill, on the 
vpestern slope of Mount Warren. They have not suffered 
by the hand of art, and the lot is one of the most beauti- 
ful and appropriate in the whole cemetery. 

The number of monuments at Forest Hills, compared 
with the number of lots which have been taken, is small. 
In this respect it presents a contrast with Mount Auburn, 
when that cemetery was in the early period of its exist- 
ence. There, monuments were erected on a large propor- 
tion of the lots first taken ; in many cases before the lots 
were enclosed, and before interments had been made in 
them. At Forest Hills, from the first, the erection of 
monuments seems to have been the exception rather than 
the rule. A large number of the lots are enclosed, and 
the name of the proprietor is borne upon the gate, with- 
out any monumental structure or stone. Even where 
interments have been made, the grave is in many cases 
adorned with flowers, or is marked by a simple slab or 
scroll, but has no more ostentatious stone to bear the in- 
scriptions which sorrow sometimes places over the beloved 
and the good. It is a simpler custom, perhaps less attrac- 



284 BOSTON AND VICINITT. 

tive to the eye of some observers, but quite as impressive 
to the heart of him 

" who wanders through these solitudes 



In mood contemplative." 

Such is a brief outline of some of the scenery and 
beauties of Forest Hills, designed to lead the reader to 
those places where the beauties may be seen, rather than 
to describe them. The eye of taste will find much to ob- 
serve that has not here been mentioned, and in nearly all 
parts of the cemetery objects and views which will attract 
and delight. Time, too, must create much that will add 
to the attractions of the place. But, even now, it needs 
only a visit to see and to feel that Forest Hills, in their 
natural and artificial beauty and fitness, are not surpassed 
by any other rural or garden cemetery. 



ADDENDA. 



The rates of fare in the city of Boston, to be taken by 
or paid to the owner or driver of any licensed carriage, are 
as follows : — 

For carrying a passenger from one place to another, 
within the city proper, fifty cents. 

For children between three and twelve years of age, 
if more tnan one, or if accompanied by an adult, half 
price only is charged for each child ; and for children 
under three years of age, when accompanied by their 
parents, or any adult, no charge is made. Every driver 
or owner of any licensed carriage is obliged to carry with 
each passenger one trunk, and a valise, saddle bag, carpet 
bag, portmanteau, box, bundle, basket, or other article 
used in travelling, if he be requested so to do, without 
charge or compensation therefor ; but for every trunk or 
other such article as above named, more than two, he ia 
entitled to demand and receive the sum of five cents. 

285 



286 ADDENDA. 



DISTANCES m BOSTON FROM THE EXCHANGE, IN 
STATE STREET. 

To the Providence Depot, three quarters of a mile ; the 
Worcester and Old Colony Depots, two thirds of a mile ; 
the Boston and Maine Depot, one third of a mile ; the 
Lowell Depot, two thirds of a mile ; the Eastern Depot, 
half a mile ; Bunker Hill Monument and Navy Yard, 
one and a quarter miles ; Roxbury, two and a half miles ; 
Chelsea, two miles ;• Cambridge bridge, three quarters of 
a mile ; Harvard University, three and a half miles ; 
Mount Auburn, four and a half miles ; Fresh Pond, five 
miles ; East Boston, one and one third miles ; Mount 
"Washington and Dorchester Heights, South Boston, two 
miles ; House of Reformation, South Boston, two and 
three quarters miles. 



Steamers leave Boston — For Eastport, Calais, 
and St. Johns, N. B. The steamers New Brunswick 
and New England leave Commercial Wharf. 

For Gardiner, Hallowell, Richmond, and Bath. 
Four excellent steamers are now running. 



ADDENDA. 287 

For Bangor and intermediate landings. The steamer 
Katahdin leaves Foster's Wharf. 

For Bangor. Inland route, via Portland. The steamer 
Regulator leaves Portland on arrival of the train that 
leaves Boston. 

For Hingham. The steamer Rose Standish leaves 
Liverpool Wharf. 

For Nahant. The steamer leaves Liverpool Wharf. 

For Portland. The steamers Montreal and Lew- 
TSTON leave India Wharf. 

From Portland the Grand Trunk Railv^^ay passes 
through 

Falmouth, Mechanic Falls, 

Cumberland, Oxford, 

Yarmouth, South Paris, 

Yarmouth Junction, North Paris, 

North Yarmouth, Bryant's Pond, 

Pownall, Locke's Mill, 

New Gloucester, Bethel, 

Cobb's Bridge, West Bethel, 

Danville Junction, Gilead, 

Hotel Road, Shelbume, 

Empire Road, Gorham, 



288 



ADDENDA. 



Berlin Falls, 

Milan, 

Stark, 

Northumberland, 

Stratford Hollow, 

North Stratford, 

Wenlock, 

Island Pond, 

Norton, 

Coaticook, 

Compton, 

Waterville, 

Lennoxville, 



Sherbrooke, 

Windsor, 

Richmond, 

Durham, 

Acton, 

Upton, 

Britannia Mills, 

St. Hyacinthe, 

Soixante, 

St. Hilaire, 

Boucherville Mountain, 

Charons, 

Montreal. 



From Richmond the road running to Quebec passes 
through 



Richmond, 

Danville, 

Warwick, 

Arthabaska, 

Stanfold, 

Somerset, 



Becancour, 

Methott's Mill, 

Black River, 

Craig's Road, 

Chaudiere, 

Point Levi, South Quebec. 



ADDENDA. 



289 



The Eastern Railroad has its depot in Causeway- 
Street, foot of Friend and Canal Streets, and passes 
throusrh 



Somerville, 

South Maiden, 

Chelsea, 

North Chelsea, 

Lynn, 

Swampscot, 

Salem, 

Beverly, 

Wenham, 

Hamilton, 



Ipswich, 

Rowley, 

Salisbury, 

Newburyport, 

Seabrook, 

Hampton, 

Hampton Falls, 

North Hampton, 

Greenland, 

Portsmouth. 



The FiTCHBURG Railroad has its depot in Causeway 
Street, and passes through 



SomerviUe, 

Porter's, 

Wellington Hill, 

Waverley, 

Waltham, 

Stony Brook, 

Weston, 

Lincoln, 

Concord, 

25 



South Acton, 
West Acton, 
Littleton, 
Groton Junction, 
Shirley, 
Lunenburg, 
Leominster, 
Fitchburg. 



290 



ADDENDA. 



The Boston and JVIaine Railroad, depot at 
Haymarket Square, passes through 



Somerville, 

Edgeworth, 

Maiden, 

Wyoming, 

Mekose, 

Stoneham, 

Greenwood, 

South Reading, 

Reading, 

Wilmington, 

Wilmington Junction, 

Ballardvale, 

Andover, 

Lawrence, 

North Andover, 

Bradford, 

Haverhill, 



Atkinson, 

Plaistow, 

Newton, 

East Kingston, 

Exeter, 

South Newmarket, 

P. and C. Junction, 

Newmarket, 

Durham, 

Madbury, 

Dover, 

RolUnsford, 

Great Falls, 

Salmon Falls, 

South Berwick, 

Portland. 



The Boston and Lowell Railroad, having its 
depot in Causeway Street, passes through 



East Cambridge, 
Milk Row, Somerville, 



Somerville Centre, 
Willow Bridge, 



ADDENDA. 



291 



Branch 

Road. 



Medford Steps, 

West Medford 

Symmes's Bridge, 

Winchester,' 
Richardson's 
Horn Pond, 
Woburn Centre, 

East Woburn, 



Woburn Watering Place, 
North Woburn, 
Wihnington, 

Billerica and Tewksbury, 
Billerica Mills, 
Bleachery, Lowell, 
Middlesex Street, Lowell, 
Lowell. 



The Old Colony and Fall River Railroad, 
having its depot in Kneeland Street, passes through 



Savin Hill, 

Harrison Square, 

Neponset, 

North Quincy, 

Quincy, 

Braintree, 

South Braintree, 

Randolph, 

North Bridgewater, 



West Bridgewater, 

Bridgewater, 

Middleboro', 

Myrick's, 

Fall River, 

South Abington, 

East Bridgewater, 

Kingston, 

Plymouth. 



Train leaves Myrick's for Fall River on arrival of the 
train from New Bedford. 

Dorchester and Milton Branch trains leave Bos- 
ton for Granite Bridge, Milton Lower and Upper Mills. 



292 ADDENDA. 

The Boston and Worcester Railroad has its pas- 
senger station on Beach and Kneeland Streets, and passes 
through 

Cambridge Crossing, Framingham, 

Brighton, Ashland, 

Newton Corner, Southboro', 

Newtonville, Westboro', 

West Newton, Grafton, and 

Auburndale, Millbury, to 

Grantville, Worcester. 
Wellesley, 
Natick, 

Branches of the B. & W. R. R. connect with 

Newton Lower Falls, 

Saxonville, 

Holliston and Milford, 

Marlboro', Clinton, and Fitchburg. 

The Boston and Providence Railroad has its de- 
pot on Pleasant Street, and passes through 

Roxbury, Mansfield, 

Jamaica Plain, West Mansfield, 

Hyde Park, Attleboro', 

Readville, Dodgeville, 







ADDENDA, 




Canton, 






Hebrouville, 


Sharon, 






Pawtucket, 


Foxboro', 


25* 




Providence. 



293 



